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Springbank 1999 16 Year Old Local Barley


jvd99
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On 3/30/2017 at 10:10 PM, jvd99 said:

Anyone try the 11 year local barley yet?

 

Yep. 

 

It's quite different to the 16 year (obviously) and is comparable to the 12 CS. I found it to have more of a fruit palate than the earthiness of the 16 but admittedly I've had a small amount of each bottle (side by side). 

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On 2/4/2017 at 5:32 AM, The Black Tot said:

Ah well, hopefully they continue to make hay (barley bushels?) while the sun shines in this whisky bubble.

 

They're opening a whole new malting floor at the neighboring Kilkerran distillery soon (if it's not running already), so as far as I see it the money's going to a good place. Will be nice to see them double their malting capacity so that in 10yrs+ we might finally see a break in Springbank prices with increased supply.

 

That's great to hear. When I went to Springbank's whisky school in 2012 they said they were producing Springbank for 9 months of the year, Longrow for 1 month and Hazelburn for 1 month. The other month they closed the distillery for maintenance and that was the only month of the year that they fired up the stills at Glengyle / Kilkerran. They used Springbank's malting floors to malt barley for it's sister distillery during that month. They must be confident in the future demand for Kilkerran if they're making the effort to restore her malting facilities.

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  • 1 month later...

Found a place with a few bottles at $199. I asked about a discount if I buy 2 bottles and they said $190 each. 3 hour round trip though. That may be a stretch. Very tempting though.


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^$199 for the 11 year? Seems more like a price for the 16 year.

Edited by Auracom
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It's the 16 year. I should have clarified. Heading out tomorrow morning for them. Convinced the wife on taking a road trip after she had a few Kilchoman's.
I did just order 2 bottles of the 11 for $143 each.


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11 hours ago, savagehenry42 said:

It's the 16 year. I should have clarified. Heading out tomorrow morning for them. Convinced the wife on taking a road trip after she had a few Kilchoman's.
I did just order 2 bottles of the 11 for $143 each.


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$143 for an 11 year old Springbank.  Wow.  I guess in a world where 5y/o Octomore is going for $150 and Kilchoman 3+y/o starts at $80, it is not that surprising to see prices so high.  

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I was talking about the 16yo Local Barley with Paul at the International Whiskey night. While it is a perfectly lovely whisky and Springbank is a place I want to support and I recognize is going to be on the higher end because of (at least in part) how they still make the whisky from start to finish I am finding it hard to find a QPR I am comfortable with for some of their newest offerings and especially the Local Barley 16 at $190 plus and 11 at $140 plus. The painfully high prices on the basic line like the 21yo don't help much either.

 

The recent excellent 12yo Burgundy finish for $100 and the stunning 17yo Sherrywood from a year or two ago for basically the same price as the 16yo LB tell me there are still (relative) bargains out there on Springbank et al. Of course if the Sherrywood came out now maybe it would be $250 or more!

 

Or maybe I am just bitter about the disappointing 18yo single cask Port Wood bottle! B)

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I had passed up the 16 year Local Barley when it was available, which I regret. But I could not pull the trigger on the 11 year at $126. Not to say that I will hold out forever, but it just does not seem compelling at that price. I picked up another Springbank 12 CS for $75 instead. That I do love.

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  • 2 months later...

As Bruce alluded to above, I found the LB16 to be very unique in a Springbank. I was worried because it had received such bad press around the web, but it's an example of an oddball that's right up my alley. I remember the nose being huge and enjoying sniffing from inches above the glass right through to rim level.

 

I didn't find the same excitement in the 11yr and my suspicion is they were keen to rush it out the door after the instant sellout success of the 16, which is too bad, because I feel like they chopped the development of this one off at the knees.

 

Totally agree with Bruce though that $190/per is not a comfortable level at which to drink whisky. For me, anyway. At least when there are so many alternatives for someone willing (doomed?) to hustle a bit.

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On 24/2/2016 at 2:11 AM, jvd99 said:

I think there's something going on with the flavor of different barleys that significantly impacts flavor.

You might find Waterford Distilleries thoughts on barley terroir of interest... " Where barley is king ,provenance is all"   https://waterforddistillery.ie/

 

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12 hours ago, The Black Tot said:

 

I didn't find the same excitement in the 11yr and my suspicion is they were keen to rush it out the door after the instant sellout success of the 16, which is too bad, because I feel like they chopped the development of this one off at the knees.

The 16's are still readily available around me.  Not seen the 11 but haven't been looking either 

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7 hours ago, charleymcguffin said:

You might find Waterford Distilleries thoughts on barley terroir of interest... " Where barley is king ,provenance is all"   https://waterforddistillery.ie/

 

 

Indeed. A philosophy that was prevalent at Bruichladdich as well which should come as no surprise given Waterford Distillery founder Mark Reynier's time as CEO of Bruichladdich after leading the relaunch of that distillery and its focus on barley sourcing.

 

I found the article on "Anarchy in Irish Whiskey" of interest. The true source of Irish whiskey can be about as difficult to determine with certainty as it is in American whiskey. And that is with only three major distilleries to source from! It will likely only get more complicated as the new crop of distilleries (at least the ones survive) begin to put whiskey of any note on the market. 

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1 hour ago, tanstaafl2 said:

I found the article on "Anarchy in Irish Whiskey" of interest.

Yes he has a bee in his bonnet about labeling , but being honest the brands that he is talking about are not ones that anyone with any sense would buy anyway . One of his principle bug bears at the moment is The Irish Whiskey Association ,which he refuses to join but prefers to snipe at from the sidelines. In fact the IWS seems to have taken the place of Diageo on whom he would regularly vent his spleen during his Bruichladdich  days. His opprobrium of Diageo would seem to have moderated as of late, perhaps acquiring

a 40 million Euro facility from them for 7.5 Mln Euro mellowed his ideas about them.

Incidentally it has always  been acknowledged that the barley from the South East of Ireland is of the best quality.

Slainte,

Charlie

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11 hours ago, jvd99 said:

The 16's are still readily available around me.  Not seen the 11 but haven't been looking either 

 

That's cool about the 16 in your area. They sold out in Europe nearly instantaneously. Had to get mine in the US myself.

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On ‎8‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 5:35 PM, charleymcguffin said:

Yes he has a bee in his bonnet about labeling , but being honest the brands that he is talking about are not ones that anyone with any sense would buy anyway . One of his principle bug bears at the moment is The Irish Whiskey Association ,which he refuses to join but prefers to snipe at from the sidelines. In fact the IWS seems to have taken the place of Diageo on whom he would regularly vent his spleen during his Bruichladdich  days. His opprobrium of Diageo would seem to have moderated as of late, perhaps acquiring

a 40 million Euro facility from them for 7.5 Mln Euro mellowed his ideas about them.

Incidentally it has always  been acknowledged that the barley from the South East of Ireland is of the best quality.

Slainte,

Charlie

 

Yeah, the Scotch Whisky Association, which sets rules for scotch, is also basically a trade organization dominated by the big scotch producers (which seems at best a bit incestuous!) and they are far from pristine in terms of their level of clarity and transparency with regulations. Given that Diageo seems to be a major player in the SWA (maybe THE major player?) it seems pretty clear to me why Reynier would rag on them all the time.

 

I guess that is what you can expect when you call your company "Renegade Spirits" and you are going to come in as an outsider and claim you can make better whiskey (or whisky as he prefers)in a country where people have made it for generations before you have even produced a drop! At least he has started and has new make that is about 1 - 1.5 years at this point. A long way to go to be whisky though!

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