Review by: The Muskox
Hazelburn is the least appreciated of the trio of Springbank distillates. It doesn’t have the force of the double-distilled heavily-peated Longrow, or the character and classic bottlings of the 2.5-times-distilled lightly peated Springbank. As a triple-distilled, unpeated single malt, to someone who’s never tried it, Hazelburn might appear closer to Auchentoshan than its Campbeltown compatriots. However, I think there are some great Hazelburns out there, with the standard 10-year-old being particularly underrated. So when the opportunity came to split a bottle of this single-fresh-rum-cask release with a friend, I was very excited. Let’s see how it is!
Distillery: Springbank.
Bottler: Official bottling.
Region: Campbeltown.
ABV: 52.6%. Cask strength.
Age: 14 years. Distilled in August 2005. Bottled in November 2019.
Cask type: Fresh rum barrel.
Price: $160 CAD.
Color: Light gold. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.
Nose: Fruity and sweet. Lots of ripe fruit: pineapple, peach, Asian pear, coconut, passionfruit, and honeydew melon. There’s a really sweet fresh sugar cane flavour, along with vanilla bean, homemade marshmallows, honey, and some malted barley. Fresh-cut grass, some fennel seed, celery, camphor, and lavender. There’s a bit of a briny note, as well as something vaguely flinty.
Palate: Medium texture. A wash of gentle, sweet, fragrant tropical fruit and flowers. There’s mango, pineapple, coconut crème, banana, and fresh flowers. It develops to toastier bittersweet notes of toasted oak, brown sugar, café au lait, cinnamon cookies, malted barley, and sponge toffee. There’s a bit of a salty note too, the sea spray on a tropical beach perhaps? A bit of spirit-sulfur and tobacco towards the back, with fresh nutmeg, black pepper, mint.
Finish: Gentle. More fresh fruit: yellow plums, nectarines, poached pears, passionfruit, and mint. Macadamia nuts and blanched almonds, maybe horchata. Coffee-scented cookies, black tea, and steamed milk. Tobacco and bit of toasted-oak bittersweetness. Slightly briny.
Conclusion: What a delicious summer dram! There’s so much tropical fruit, with that really great creaminess and spice, and just a hint of brine to accentuate everything else.
Final Score: 89.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 