The eternally tiresome price problem ... RRP 79 €. Very fair PLV, which unfortunately is passed on from only a few to no dealers due to the limitation.

Tasting notes:

Scent: Burlap, vanilla bean, deep cave atmosphere (I'm a speelunker), celery juice, caramel, fresh silk fabric, cement floor warehouse as well as dunnage dirt floor warehouse (casks mixed in this batch), wet muslin coastal curtains, wet sand, ocean breeze, crosshill loch. Touch of peat, really nice.

Taste: very wide expansive vista compared to the 12; turbinado sugar icing on short bread, vanilla bean, negative ion and ozone after thunder shower, breeze over wet grass, seashells, crosshill loch water. Subtle peat that seems creamy and moorish. This dram has a creamy quality in the mouth, almost like delicious fatty globules in fresh dairy milk from a recently milked single milk cow (not homogenized batch milk).

Finish: medium, mouthwatering, aesthetically desirable in a zen-like way. Subtle, earthy, pleasantly lacking in mass production directives such as come through in Glenmorangie products, which are overtly pleasing but artificial and therefore not full bodied and not old skool like this dram. I choose old skool. Sorry Dr. Bill even though your jokes are funny during presentations, especially live and in person.

-------- afterward reflections and questions -----------
I'm confused. There is some uncertainty over the smidge of sweet wood that went into this bottling, i.e. what sort of wood it is.

The distillery statement is also vague. Is it Madeira or Marsala? It makes a difference to me. My fave sweet wood that goes well with Springers or Kilkies is Madeira.

From Springbank's newsletter:

"As many of you will know, in March we marked Glengyle Distillery’s 16th Anniversary. Excitingly, we are now launching our first ever Kilkerran 16 year old and it is a beauty. Our Kilkerran 16Y/O is predominantly matured in bourbon casks and continues to develop all the classic Kilkerran characteristics we know and love."

Springbank is my favorite distillery on earth, and Glengyle is also up there. Or else I would not care a wit.

As Depeche Mode once sang: "Everything counts in large amounts," but if the small amount is enough to tweak the large, then it's worth sorting this out. I see others have weighed in. Are there two releases? One big with marsala and one small with madeira, both at 46%? I'm lost on this one guys. And, grateful as I am for a 16 year release, I wish it was up at 48% instead. I know 46% is the standard OB level for Springbank and Glengyle, but still. A few extra percentage points could make such a difference to me. But on the bright side, 46 is better than 44 or 43, which is a bummer, or 40, gods forbid, which really sux unless the bottling is super old. Then it can still be grand.

And I know that both distilleries are very good with special indie cask releases at cask strength, so knock on cask wood, I hope to get some in the future. There's always the auctions. Fighting the teaming hoardes for indies is not worth the bother to me. Such a buzz kill.