2023 Release | 55.1% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
If it’s instant gratification you’re after, this isn’t the whisky for you
The marshmallow test
Instant gratification. The temptation, and resulting tendency, to forego a future benefit in order to obtain a less rewarding but more immediate benefit.
In the 1960’s Stanford University conducted a psychology experiment on pre-schoolers to identify the processes that underlie self-control in the face of temptation, calling it The Marshmallow Test.
It was quite simple. The kids were given the choice of eating one marshmallow immediately or by waiting a little while to be rewarded with two marshmallows. The kids were measured on how long they could wait before eating the first. The researchers found the longer the wait times, the better the outcome for those kids in adolescence, higher grades at school, better social cognitive and emotional coping mechanisms as well as much better concentration levels.
The social media dominated world we live in now is instant gratification central. We’re used to getting what we want and getting it now. Streaming services and next day delivery have made it almost unthinkable that we may actually have to wait for something.
Our patience has almost evaporated. A 2013 study from the University of Amherst found that video streaming quality had a massive impact on viewer behaviour. If a video took more than two seconds to load, potential viewers would start looking elsewhere - and for every additional second of delay, an extra 5.8% of people would give up and move on to something else.
Social media platforms use mechanisms such as push notifications and infinite scroll to produce a feedback loop in an effort to keep us hooked and looking for the next dopamine hit. This has also had a negative impact on concentration levels. According to Statisticbrain.com, eight seconds is the average person’s attention span and that only about 28% of the words are read on the average webpage. Words, it would seem, are out of fashion - and videos, pictures and bullet points are en vogue.
On the last point at least I feel my own concentration levels have definitely taken a hit. It’s one reason I am actively spending less time on social media. I’ve left Twitter and I don’t regret it. I’ve left numerous Facebook whisky pages recently to purge the information overload and fight the dreaded FOMO. And rather than destroying my melatonin production by looking at my phone last thing at night, I’ve gone old school and started reading proper paper books again. What has all this got to do with whisky? You’ll have to read to the end of the review to truly find out. But one place in the whisky world that’s definitely not about instant gratification is Springbank.
As a Dramface reader, you probably don’t need to be educated into the hand-made nature of all things Springbank. Time and appreciable effort are spent into making all things Hazelburn, Longrow and Springbank. This does not mean everything that comes from this hallowed Campbeltown institution is an instant classic, but frequently means that there’s a bit of challenge to their offerings. But when you get a good one it will have been very much worth the wait.
Review
Springbank Local Barley 11yo, 2023 release, 55.1% ABV
£110 paid
Speaking of instant gratification, nearly anything that comes out of Springbank feeds the temptation to make an instant profit and sadly it was no different with this release. After I’d opened my bottle, I got a message from Dallas asking if I’d seen the auction prices. I hadn’t as I don’t really spend any time looking at auctions. Dallas enlightened me: £350. As for 25 year old Springbank, we’re looking at around £1300, Dallas informed me. The auction madness continues.
I had the opportunity to acquire the 25 year old release but at £500 it was well out of my wallet's comfort zone. However, I have decided that next time, if I’m still fortunate enough to be able to buy one, I’m going to. Then I’m going to do 100ml bottle splits at cost so a few more people can actually enjoy the liquid and not watch as perverse amounts of profit are made by flippers.
To flesh out a bit more information on this whisky then. The barley source is Glencraigs Farm with the barley type being Belgravia. It was distilled in May 2011 and bottled in December 2022 with an outturn of 15,000 - not that you’d know that as it’s rarer than hen’s teeth to see one opened. The cask make-up is 55% ex-sherry, 35% ex-bourbon and 10% ex-rum.
In a further fun twist, I sent a sample to Dallas, so he could furnish us with his thoughts too.
Nose
Dark chocolate stem ginger biscuits. Lemon peel and sea spray along with barley sugars. There’s an earthy, brackish note too. Gentle peat and new leather. Fruit notes now of melon and ripe banana along with vanilla and caramel. An oily rag also finds a place.
Palate
There’s a bit of alcohol kick on first pass. Once past the heat, the mouthfeel is oily and chewy. Salted caramel sweetness plus chilli dark chocolate and cracked black pepper. Fresh ginger with lemon and grapefruit. There’s a coastal bonfire with wet slate and a taste of copper. Finally a note of desiccated coconut appears. The finish is medium length with ginger warmth, a chalky aspect and some drying oak.
The Dregs
First off, thanks for making it this far and not having left the page after the industry standard 4.4 seconds. Second, now we can see how this ties into my ramblings at the beginning.
This is definitely an old school dram and if you were looking for instant gratification from this, I suspect you’d likely be disappointed. I watched Gav’s Drams review with interest as he struggled to get much from this initially. That said, it was pretty much a neck pour.
Now I don’t always subscribe to the notion that you can’t really judge a whisky from a neck pour but there are definitely as many instances of a whisky developing through your journey through the bottle as there are of those that seem to stay the same from start to finish.
This is definitely a bottle that changes through time and volume. I too have to admit that until I got to the shoulder I found this a very closed liquid, both in nose and palate. I’m now just over halfway through and I think it’s starting to sing now - and who knows, may get better. Just for information, the sample I sent to Dallas was from when I got to just below a 1/3 of the contents being consumed.
This is a bottle that will challenge but ultimately reward with time and effort being put forth to peel back its layers, of which I suspect, I’m going to find it has more of.
Score: 7/10 AG
Dallas’s Review
Springbank Local Barley 11yo, 2023 release, 55.1% ABV
£110 paid
My phone pings as a new message arrives from Craggy Island. Normally, these take the form of our Archie, pleading with me to urgently dispatch good whisky to his shores. I’m a kind soul occasionally, even the face of such ravenous debauched behaviour and Hunter Thompson-like excess. Demand is high, but supply is limited when it comes to the good stuff as he likes to refer to Springbank as.
Ireland as a whole has plenty of whiskey and what exists is often a little young (which isn’t a bad thing) yet is frankly overpriced. A raft of new distilleries excite yet the peer pressure to launch at sky high prices is off putting. For once, I don’t blame the locals, you have to draw the line in the sand and say enough is enough.
I even hear some individuals moan about Springbank prices, which I do find laughable when it comes to the core range of releases like the Local Barley. £110 for this release is reasonable when you consider the effort that’s gone into the product; the manual element and working with specific barley type, as opposed to the nearest truckload. You’re paying for the experience and we’ll debate whether it is worth it in due course.
In these times of newish Scottish distilleries charging upwards of £75 for their latest harvest release, or a teenage Caol Ila coming in at more than £125, I believe Springbank pricing is justified.
The distillery isn’t infallible as our last joint effort, in the form of the Springbank PX showed. It just didn’t sit well with me and I’m glad many others agreed it wasn’t the finest start for a new range. A minority did enjoy the bottling and I appreciate that to a certain extent, but they should head for the sherry section if looking for their next purchase.
The Local Barley series is, in a way, about terroir without actually stating the dreaded T-word that has become associated with all sorts of rowdy and regrettable behaviour. Being grown locally, distilled, matured and bottled in the Campbeltown region, it is all in the bottle and that’s what I prefer. Throw in the handcrafted element, patient approach etc. and there’s no need for bling, falsehoods or blue bottles. The whisky will tell you when it’s ready and not the need to push out more product into a saturated market. One of these Local Barleys annually is more than enough for most of our needs. That way we have time to appreciate it fully.
I’m sure the temptation is there for Springbank to flood the market as best they can and clean up. However, they have been remarkably restrained in trying to accommodate everyone as best as they can. The practicalities of production mean we won’t see the benefits of any recent increases for several years and almost by accident, they do have a brand that has grown organically.
My own recent excursions with Springbank have been varied as the PX release underlined. Recently, I was at the distillery and I found their hand-fill distillery shop edition to be lacking character, but we had some lovely single casks (reasonably priced) for foreign markets, in the Washback bar. I also greatly enjoyed the Cadenhead’s Original Collection Springbank 11 year old, which I’d say is my favourite whisky of 2023 so far. Clocking in at £75 and bottled at 46%, it offered much of what I do enjoy from Springbank and is seriously easy to drink.
The 2023 Local Barley release features Belgravia barley from Glencraigs Farm on the Kintyre Peninsula.
Thanks again to Archie for the sample and demanding I write something and put aside the Nico and Throbbing Gristle records, meh.
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
Old style whisky demanding old style approach
Nose
An initial dominating presence that I can only summarise as sweet moss before more notes of apple strudel, clean cotton and seaweed. Chamomile tea brings lightness and refreshment. Sea spray, an old dusty rug and decaying fruit. More gentle sweetness with icing sugar, hard candy, candied fruits, wet wool, manure and a touch of smoke.
Palate
Tweed, hemp and black pepper. Peach skin, limes, minerality like struck pebbles. Oily, grapefruit, peat and a touch of the funky farm aspect, followed by coconut and dried fenugreek leaves.
The Dregs
There's an interesting comparison to be made with the aforementioned Springbank Original Collection 11yo. I find both have real similarities despite the differences in barley. However, this Local Barley has more depth, mouthfeel and secrets to unlock. For many, this won't be an immediate whisky and these LB releases appreciate a slow approach as the bottle develops. We live in an immediate society where little input and maximum gratification are staple behaviours and not suited to Springbank.
This is an old style whisky that demands an old style approach. A winner in my book and sadly now investment material, so many won't get the opportunity to appreciate its qualities. But if you do see one open somewhere, do jump in and enjoy. Unless you’re on Craggy Island, where I’d suggest leaving the good stuff for the locals or you’ll receive some colourful messages.
Score: 8/10 DM
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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