In June 2025 Springbank distillery kicked off a new annual Springbank Vintage series. This collection will feature limited editions that showcase some of their oldest whiskies.
The inaugural release is the Springbank 1998 Vintage, which matured in sherry casks, a mix of refill and first fill Oloroso casks. As a vintage release it doesn’t have an age statement, but it is meant to be a replacement for the Springbank 25 Years.
Kudos to Springbank for also offering a tasting pack which included samples of this new release, along with the latest Local Barley and new batches of some ongoing releases. There’s an accompanying online tasting in July but we couldn’t wait until then.
Springbank 1998 Vintage (48,3%, OB 2025, Oloroso sherry casks, 1500 btl.)
Nose: a lot of funky notes, wet wood and mulching forest leaves, really savoury. Salty air, old resin and a musty cellar. In a second wave I’m getting dark cocoa, hazelnuts, fudge and hints of dates. Later I’m also picking up flashes of a fruity sourness, think cranberries and sour cherry, as well as a mild hint of faded potpourri.
Mouth: on the thin side, and very savoury with lots of herbs and tobacco leaves. Plenty of wet soil. Then sea salt, more roasted nuts and lemon peelings. Black peppercorns and hints of linseed oil. Roasted chestnuts and coffee. Only flashes of sour berries. Mid-palate a meaty / winey note comes out, closer to a red wine cask than to Oloroso in my opinion. Herbal extracts and some leather as well.
Finish: medium length, with more leather, some salted caramel and nutmeg.
This is a really good whisky, brought down by one characteristic that bothers me. It’s hard to put the finger on it, but it leans too much towards musty and savoury notes for me. Overall still very good but my hopes were even higher. After all independent bottlers have released better casks (granted, at an even higher price). This already showed up at Royal Mile Whiskies and Abbey Whisky but it sells out quickly. I suppose it will also appear in other countries shortly.