Springbank Distillery, Scotland     founded: 1828 | active
For more detailed mapping of the distilleries in the area from our whisky map page, use this link.

Our host threw away all of our carefully-crafted notes, so the following is an approximation of thoughts collated 3 1/2 months after the event...

This one was a big bruiser, wafting the other two from this meet out the water. Really strong smell of TCP, with rubber and smoke in abundance too. It's fair to say, this has a big nose.

A big meaty 'n' smoky sherry cask, does what you'd expect. I think it's fair to say all bottles from this meet could be thematically grouped as Ronseal whiskies - they do exactly what they say on the tin. We knew this would be rich, sweet, rubbery and smokey - and, well, it was.

Not mind-blowing and perhaps lacking some subtlety, but the winner of the three on the night. This is the kind of whisky that would take home top honours in a tasting as it's boisterous, fun and richly-flavoured - but is it lacking a touch of class?

Please note: the scores below are very limited by the notes being lost - the overall score best represents our collective memory, it won't be too far off being representative.

~£45 (70cl)

WhiskyBase: Longrow 2002 CA   |   https://www.whiskybase.com/whisky/65680/longr

We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.

84 / 100