Springbank 18 Year 2021 700mL

Springbank 18 Year Old, 2021 release, drawn from an exact 50/50 split of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks and bottled at 46% ABV. It shows the distillery's oily, coastal side with a firm sherry frame.

About This Whisky

Each year's 18 gets its own cask recipe; recent years have ranged from all-bourbon to mostly sherry. For 2021 Springbank settled on a straight half-and-half vatting of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, bottled at 46% with natural colour and no chill filtration. Reviewers describe it as austere at first, opening up after the bottle has had some air.

Tasting Profile

• Nose: Old coins, orange juice and damp earth, then brine, a little char and, with water, coriander seed, burlap and apricot.
• Palate: Good weight at 46%, with orange turning to lemon, a hint of tar, rising salt and a slick, oily texture.
• Finish: Long, with peat and damp earth, citrus and rock salt.

Serving & Food

Pour it and wait: this vatting rewards patience, both in the glass and over the life of an open bottle. Serve at room temperature with a dash of water. Salt-baked chicken, Iberico ham, or smoked duck breast bring out its savoury side.

How to Enjoy

Drinkers who like a drier, more savoury older Springbank, and anyone putting the 2020, 2021 and 2022 releases side by side.

Product Details

About the Distillery

The Mitchell story in Campbeltown did not stop at Springbank. In 1872 William Mitchell, one of Archibald's sons, founded Glengyle a short walk away. It was later sold and fell silent in 1925. In 2000 Hedley G. Wright, then Springbank's chairman and a direct descendant of Archibald, bought the old Glengyle buildings, and the rebuilt distillery ran its first spirit in 2004. It was the first new distillery in Campbeltown for over a century, and its arrival helped the town keep its standing as a separate whisky region. Its single malt is sold as Kilkerran.