Springbank Local Barley 10y 2021 Release

Super hyped release already, with flipped auctions bottles going for north of $500. Sure, Springbank is great but a release of 8500 bottles fetching close to 5x retail price already? Damn. Must be the sherry - this is a 100% sherry matured version of the popular Local Barley releases. Anyway, while the website of the Swedish booze monopoly crumbled under the immense pressure, I was standing in line outside one of the actual stores like a good citizen. Naturally with a mask and with proper distance, and everything went orderly without injuries. I've made sure to quickly crack the bottle open just to steer clear of the temptation to flip it! I'll be co-tasting this with my esteemed namesake Victor, hereafter called Victor II. My site, my rules.

I love it. Again - the sherry takes the lead on this one. It's a sherry heavy whisky with Springbank influences rather than a Springbank with sherry influences. I think it works great, as it's not overly spicy/raisiny/winey in any way, and the distillery character adds some interesting spins as always. I love the power and definitely think it's worth the hype. Maybe not 5x the price, but that's another story. Just for reference, the retail price in Sweden is the equivalent to $130, and I'm very happy that I spent some time waiting in line for this one.