Review 242. Longrow 18 yo: old school whisky ftw

What is it that makes us gravitate towards certain whiskies/distilleries more than to others? And by ‘we’, I mean those of us who can easily be defined as ‘discerning whisky consumers’. Those of us who can’t help but frown and sigh in advance when we stumble upon whisky that’s been chill filtered, coloured and/or bottled at a lower ABV than 46%. And I can’t emphasize enough how this has nothing tot do with snobbery, but just a sincere feeling of regret as these practices almost always come down to the whisky deliberately being stripped of some of its potential. Why would you produce something that takes an enormous amount of skill all the way through the production process, and then purposely  add something or do something to it to make it less good? It’s a bit as if a car manufacturer would add a big rectangular box on top of the bonnet ‘to make it look better’, ending up hindering the driver’s view whilst messing up the aerodynamics and its fuel efficiency.

What many of us look for in whisky is depth, complexity, flavour, texture… and when we look at the distilleries that tend to deliver these things, Those that immediately spring to mind are  the likes of Benromach, Ardnamurchan, Glen Garioch, Craigellachie, Ardmore and indeed Springbank and a few others. Also, opiniated bugger that I am,  I feel that  there is one thing all of these have in common: their ‘old school’ style of whisky.  Compared to their peers, I feel as if these producers give us whiskies that are often just a bit more dense, a bit more ‘gritty’ or  dirty, a bit more oily,  with plenty of layers whilst not compromising on flavour or texture, often using peat as well -  not to necessarily create absolute smoke bombs like some of the Islay distilleries, but more as a contributing factor to the overall flavour profile or as something as an ‘undertow’ underneath all the other flavour components, helping to tie everything together and make it cohesive. And while I do tend to keep the aforementioned distilleries in high regard, this doesn’t of course mean that they are my be all and end all of what I’m looking for in whisky, as I’m sure you’ll agree that the best whisky is whatever ticks the boxes of whatever it is  you’re in the mood for at that time. I don’t know about you, but that bottle of cask strength Bunna 12 in my cabinet is mostly collecting dust at the moment, lovely as it is, as that’s just not what I’m looking for to sip and enjoy when we’re close to 30° C (85° F) outside.

The point I’m trying to make, I guess, is that I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those distilleries which are often namedropped when discussing people’s favourites are those that tend to give us these old style/old school whiskies.  And for obvious reasons, Springbank  is the most ‘old school’ of them all.

Longrow 18 yo. 46% ABV, natural colour, UCF. Matured in both sherry and bourbon casks, unfortunately rather unobtanium these days, but RRP around €200 - €250

Of course it’s not necessarily a given, but I think  it’s highly likely that one of the main reasons Springbank gives us old school whisky, is because it’s an old school distillery, both in the way of production methods as in the equipment they use. Everything from grain to bottle happens at the actual distillery, as they are one of few left who malt, mash, wash, distil, age and bottle on site and the only one who malts 100% of the grain they use at their own malting floors (the one exception I think being the malt used to produce  Kilkerran’s heavily peated expressions, but that’s of course its sister distillery). It’s an old school whisky because it’s an old school distillery, using old school equipment and relying on good ole’ manual labour, craft and skill  rather than modern technology. The outturn, as a consequence, will likely be less ‘efficient’ compared to other distilleries who tend to automate as much of their production process as possible, and therefore costs and retail prices will always be a bit higher. And that’s not a critique at Springbank’s peers by any means, merely an observation. We know this, we understand this and  it’s part of why we love and respect Springbank so much. I stated once that if not your favourite whisky, Springbank should definitely be one of your favourite distilleries. If you feel like digging a bit deeper into why Springbank should be cherished, I’ve talked about that here when discussing whether or not regions are still relevant in this day and age.

Longrow, as you well know, is Springbank’s peatier range. From what I understand, the same barley is used to create all of their 3 expressions, Hazelburn,  Springbank and Longrow. The difference lies in how long the barley was submitted to peat smoke (Hazelburn, being unpeated, obviously only relies on barley submitted to hot air, while the barley used to make Springbank is being dried using peat fires for 6 hours and then another 30 hours of hot air,  whereas the barley used for Longrow is dried over a peat fire for a full 2 days).

As Longrow’s 18 year old is a limited release, they do tend to mix things up when releasing one. Some expressions rely on a mixture of bourbon and sherry casks, for others they throw in port casks alongside either bourbon or sherry casks or combine any of the above to create something they feel hits the spot. Today’s sample comes from an expression that used bourbon and sherry casks, courtesy of Fredrik of the now sadly dormant YT channel ‘A Dram Divided’.

Nose

Lemon pie and quite floral in that I’m picking up a hint of lavender. A lot of delicious savoury notes in the form of both creamy and hard cheeses and meat. Notes of wood and soft sweet peat run through it all.  This is one of those drams you could just enjoy nosing all evening. Excellent stuff!

Palate

Clean arrival with distinct notes of wood, vanilla, soft honey and again all of those savoury elements. Again the peat is rather gentle here as it has indeed mellowed out a fair bit after 18 years of maturation. But what it does, it does so wonderfully well, tying everything together to create a harmonious, layered, gorgeous experience. This is whisky at its finest, in my opinion.

Finish

Long, with notes of soft oak and a hint of pepper and peat.

Final thoughts

My one and only regret here, is only having the sample to enjoy. I’m now at a point in my journey where I find myself buying less bottles than a few years ago, as I’m willing to invest more in something absolutely stunning rather than just going for ‘plain good’. Of course  my focus still lies on bottles with a price tag below 3 digits, but just on occasion, once or twice a year, I’m willing to splurge a bit. That said, and d despite this being very, very good, I ‘m not convinced I’d be happy paying €200 or even more on a bottle of something like this as I stubbornly maintain that intrinsically no whisky can be worth more than €300 or so. But should I find something like this for anywhere between €150 and €200, I ‘m quite sure that I would get a seriously itchy trigger finger. Lovely, lovely, lovely whisky!