Springbank 1993 30yo RMW Cask #159

Springbank 1993 30yo RMW Cask #159

Region: Campbeltown

ABV: 52.2%

Price: £895.00

Distilled in May 1993, this whisky spent 30 years maturing in a bourbon hogshead before its bottling in October 2023. A limited release of just 178 bottles were made available.

Nose

The nose opens with a relatively pronounced earthy smoke, gravel, lime zest, and creme brûlée with a lightly toasted sugar crust. We’re also finding a strong maritime quality, seashells, sea spray, wet pebbles alongside a little gravel too. There’s a really nice balance to the alcohol, we’d have thought this was sub-50%. Time and air brings out some orchard fruits, green apple, poached pear in white wine and cloudy lemonade. 

Palate

The palate opens with heaps of lime, watermelon, sherbet, appletiser, candy floss and grapefruit as the palate develops. It’s incredibly fruity for a Springbank, with less smoke than we expected based off the nose. The mouthfeel is reasonable, like sugar syrup, but not super textured. The finish is a touch shorter than we’d like, but it still has a decent length with lingering vanilla bean, pear compote and a bit of white bread. There’s also less maritime/sea salt than the nose promised, but there’s still a hint of it in the background. 

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose has a richer quality, gingerbread, light caramel and toffee notes along with those earthy, peat smoke aromas. Most of the other pre-dilution aromas stay consistent. 

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate brings out some woodier flavours, a hint of nutmeg and clove, but also some creamy vanilla custard poured over a freshly baked apple tart. The mouthfeel remains pretty consistent, but there’s a bit of peppery spice as the palate develops. Behind this it’s still very fruit forward, lots of those aforementioned apples and pears. 

Conclusion

Much fruiter than we expected, but lovely none the less. It’s a well balanced, well aged single cask that shows off the quality that we know Springbank can produce. A few minor points around the length of finish and texture dent the score slightly, but this is a really great dram.. a little better than the standard 30yo release in our opinion.

Score: 8.5/10

Value

While not inexpensive, this whisky is competitively priced compared to the core 30-year-old. It will be intriguing to see where the auction price settles for this particular release.

• 10 - Perfection. One in a million
• 9 - Outstanding. Exceptional whisky.
• 8 - Great. Would seek this out.
• 7 - Good. Quality whisky.
• 6 - Above average. Happy to have a dram.
• 5 - Average. Drinkable whisky.
• 4 - Below average. Passable.
• 3 - Flawed. Noticeable negatives.
• 2 - Defective. Significant faults.
• 1 - Offensive. Pour it out.

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