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History In A Bottle Day 5: A Tale of Two Springbank KWM Casks

Posted on December 5, 2022

This post is Bonus Content. It has information on one of the KWM Cask bottles that are featured on the back of our 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar box. You can find the blog post for the mini bottle for Day Five of our Whisky Calendar here.

by Andrew

The archive photo on the box shows our first KWM exclusive single cask of Springbank, distilled in 1996 and filled into a Manzanilla Sherry Cask, #258. But in this environment where Springbank has become the new Pappy Van Winkle, would it surprise you to learn that we actually bottled two Springbanks back in the day?

The first Springbank cask was selected by a handful of customers and I while on a tour of Islay and the West Coast of Scotland in 2008. It was selected from a range of 5 to 6 different Springbanks, each matured in a different type of Sherry cask. The whisky was a hit, and sold out quickly, so a second cask was selected. The second was an Oloroso Sherry Butt bottled after 13 years. It was only after this Springbank arrived at Kensington Wine Market that one of the customers who selected the first cask with me noticed that our new cask was the second favourite the first time around… It’s cask number 1996 #269.

It was a different time. Even though Springbank had a loyal following, it was small, and both casks were Sherry Butts holding more than 600 bottles. The market for hoarding and flipping bottles was 5-8 years in the future. So these whiskies took some time to sell, but this was no hardship. We have always loved romancing the Springbank Distillery, it’s people and its whisky.

Barely more than a year after the bottling of our second Springbank cask, the distillery paused the sale of single casks to retailers. They resumed bottling market casks about 3-4 years ago, but the demand for them now is through the roof. I hope a day will come in the not-too-distant future when KWM will once again have the privilege of bottling another Springbank cask. But if that day never comes, at least we got to put our name on the two we did!

Springbank 1996 KWM Manzanilla Cask 258 – 56.4% - This is the one pictured on the 2022 KWM Whisky Calendar box for Day 5. 

This was the first of two 1996 vintage Springbank sherry casks selected by and bottled exclusively for KWM was matured 12 years in a Manzanilla Sherry cask (#258), bottled at 56.4%.

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: rich and spicy, brown sugar and cedar wood notes give way to fig bars and young Christmas cake.

Palate: sweet and spicy with firm tannins, this is an after dinner whisky, or at least in need of a juicy steak; toffee cake and dark chocolate notes dominate the palate with fig-like fruits.

Finish: mouth-coating and rich, the finish is long, smooth and full of rich dried fruits.

Springbank KWM 1996 Oloroso Cask - 55.8%

Funny story about our second KWM Springbank cask, after bottling it, one of the customers who helped Andrew select the first recognized the cask number on this one as being our second choice the first time around... what are the odds? This 13-year-old Springbank was matured in an Oloroso Sherry Cask, No.269, bottled at 55.8%. Our first Springbank Cask, 1996 No. 258 was a 12-year-old Manzanilla cask matured whisky.

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: sweet, Christmas spices, brown sugar, milk chocolate.

Palate: really spicy and sweet, candied fruits, drying oak and some salty smoke.

Finish: rich, long and smooth with more spicy-sweet notes.

Andrew Ferguson

Owner

Kensington Wine Market

This entry was posted in Whisky, KWM Whisky Calendar 2022, KWM Single Cask

 

 

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