[March, 2018] These old Springbank "thistle" bottlings were my favourite drams when I started to drink single malt whisky in the nineties and I always enjoyed them. So I asked Frank McHardy why these bottlings are so delicious compared to other 12-years old drams. He smiled and answered "you know, these were bottled shortly after the whisky bust of the eighties and we owned large excess stocks of older casks that we could not sell otherwise. So we simply used some of these old casks (instead of water) to dilute the 12-years old batches to the desired 46% abv. So, actually you drink a good share of much older stuff that matured 20 years or even more, but the share of that differs from batch to batch." What a clever move of Springbank: If this was intentionally than I nominate Springbank for any Marketing Award that is out there: To use excess high quality stock to build a sustainable compelling reputation of your standard range is simply very smart - very, very smart!!!).

Not just the share of older Springbank is different from batch to batch (by the way, Springbank released rather small batches during these times) but the split between bourbon and sherry casks vary drastically too. Because this all is very interesting I selected two bottles for a head-to-head tasting that represent these differences: A "red thistle" bottling with a very pale colour (WB id 6190, so almost exclusively bourbon casks, I guess) versus this very dark "green thistle" bottling (that contains a high share of dark sherry casks, for sure). I bought both bottles for 66 Euro (129 Deutschmark) each back in 2001.

Both are great drams of the past and very, very quaffable. Depending on your preference of either bourbon matured or sherry matured drams you should go for the rather paler or darker batches. I really enjoyed both - and the price of 66 Euro was more than okay for a dram of that quality (back in 2001). To be honest, I prefer these drams even quality-wise over the recent 21-years and 25-years Springbank bottlings (not to mention their price)!

PS: Always remember there are many different batches of the red and green thistle releases that all taste very different. Unfortunately, there is almost no chance to identify a certain batch except from the colour. Both bottles show the bottle code SD764 (what is the batch of the glass bottle production at the bottom of the bottle), but most green and red thistles are bottled with this bottle code. The green thistle has a bottling hall stamp 99/46 on the back side of the smaller back label (you see the stamp through the glass once the bottle is empty), the red thistle has no stamp unfortunately...

This is no 12 year old and that’s a fact as far as I’m concerned. As you can read in other reviews, it is likely not 12 years old at all. Shockingly old sherry you only saw from 70s casks. It’s stunning, but what is interesting is Springbanks mineral character is muted, it falls into a more nuanced spirit that could be another distillery from a bygone era. A fascinating side by side, very educational. Beautiful malt and kudos to Springbank for always putting quality first, a distillery to cherish. Thank you to my friend for the opportunity to try such a dram. Cheers!

The nose is not perfect for my taste but in the mouth it becomes very complex and pleasant.

With or without water, still don't enjoy it. I have given it ample time of 3 hours but it's just meh.

1501) Springbank, 12YO (1999)

Re-tasted after 3 months since I opened the bottle, and it's getting better. Pure enjoyment when sipping this.