Gordon Wright

Springbank 10yo 1995/2006 (46%, The Alchemist, D12/’95 B01/’06)

A limited edition Springbank from Gordon Wright, the Alchemist himself and he is part of the family that owns Springbank distillery. This bottling is a vatting of fresh port pipes and 1st fill bourbon casks.  On the nose there is rich fruit along with the very distinctive aroma of Springbank followed by Christmas cake, apricot, very gentle peat reek and some crème brulèe. What a sensational nose. Everything is working well here and is in harmony. The taste is at first very much Springbank and is also very winey  followed by some malt, dried fruit (from the Christmas cake), the peat reek and some really nice oak which is slightly dry but really well enhanced by the sweetness and fruit. The taste is very, very rich and redolent with loads of rich fruit; quite excellent. The finish is of gentle smoke, more fruit and then quickly becomes dry and malty. The finish is quite long and warming, after a minute or two the fruit makes a reappearance which is very nice. After a number of minutes the malt once again emmerges and is quite excellent all the while in harmony with the very gentle peat reek.

All in all a very good example of Springbank with a richness that reminds one of the Springbanks form the early 1990’s. The web address is a disaster; anybody searching for ‘Alchemist’ on google will not find Gordon and his excellent whiskies. You must search under alc-hem-ist  ……..   www.alc-hem-ist.com

C$80

Score 88 Points