Springbank 12 Year Cask Strength 2021 700mL

A 2021 bottling of Springbank 12 Year Old Cask Strength, the undiluted counterpart to the core 10 and 15. It is bottled straight from the vatting at natural strength, without chill filtration or added colour.

About This Whisky

The 12 Cask Strength comes out in batches, and the vatting changes each time. Two batches were bottled in 2021. The spring batch, bottled in April, was an even split of bourbon and sherry casks at 55.4%. The later batch, bottled towards the end of the year at 55.9%, was the first 12 Cask Strength drawn entirely from ex-bourbon casks, and the first to ship without an outer box. Both are 12 years old and uncut.

Tasting Profile

• Nose: Dunnage warehouse, damp rock pools and brine, with malt, orange, tinned peach, red apple and a little mint.
• Palate: Oily and salty, with malt biscuit, sweet citrus, honey and vanilla, white pepper and a touch of smoked fish.
• Finish: Long, with earthy smoke, peach, pickling brine and gristy malt.

Serving & Food

Let the glass sit for a moment, then take a first sip neat before adding water drop by drop; at this strength it holds up well to dilution. Cold oysters, smoked eel, or salt-and-pepper squid are all good matches.

How to Enjoy

Anyone wanting Springbank at full volume, and those who like to compare one batch against the next.

Product Details

About the Distillery

Before any distilling happens, Springbank's grist is made in a Porteous mill dating from the 1940s, and the mash runs through a cast-iron mash tun that is close to a century old. Hot water is passed through each batch of grist three times, with rakes turning the mash. The sugary wort then goes into six washbacks made of boatskin larch, where yeast works on it for as long as 110 hours. That long, slow ferment is one reason the new make comes off the stills fruity and oily rather than lean. Water for the process comes from the hills around Campbeltown.