Springbank Palo Cortado 10 Year Old:  

Always! and thank you

Can't wait to send Mike a welcome note to his sweet Palo, or Cortado 🤣

I'm not used to this type of wine cask so it's very possible I'm not fully appreciating this offering. After I review normally, i watch a few reviews of the same whisky to see what I missed. i will check yours out... Cheers

Thanks bro!

Glad I could help!

That's a rare bottle. I haven't bought a Deanston in a while.

That would be an interesting way to make these kinds of decisions, but I'm not saying you're wrong. Rarity normally means higher cost. Could it be they overpaid for the casks and that set cost, or kept it high.

In simple terms a Palo Cortado is essentially an Oxidized Fino Sherry. It becomes a Palo Cortado after the "Flor" that protects the Fino Sherry from oxidizing breaks. No special grape is used.

@@LitoCortes Thank you. I appreciate the information. The information that I read makes it sound like it's difficult to produce. That's why it's not produced often. I'm guessing the process of oxidation isn't easy

We make a strong effort for the annual SB releases.

I've had PX, Oloroso, and Fino. Honestly, not thinking I want a Palo lol

@@topshelfdustin3060 palo cortado is the best of the bunch. It’s a fino that naturally loses the flor and oxidizes. Amontillado is similar but that one loses the flor on purpose. They are both between an oloroso and fino. If you like oloroso, you’ll like both amontillado and palo cortado. They are really good.

Did you get the 12?

@topshelfwhisky Yes have a second bottle of that 12 year CS. It's right in my "wheel house"

oh boy, the Arran 12 James McTaggart Palo Cortado is one of my favorite whiskys ever!!!

We definitely knew we'd have those who liked this more than us. I would say just for context on our scoring, if you've not seen a lot of our high end reviews. I"m not sure even on like 49 year old whiskies or bottles we've bought an auction or through groups for 4 figures have gotten 94's from both of us. Maybe not even 93's. So our scoring might be a bit tougher than others on youtube. Just wanted that context to go with I paid roughly double what you did which soured my view on value. That said I was offered 160 to sell this to someone opened and passed. By no means do I hate it!

@@topshelfdustin3060 Fair enough. I must admit that I don't know if I would have bought it for $200/€180. That's a lot of money!

As a Finnish guy I would love to have your monopoly instead of ours: We do not get any Springbank products here.

that's pretty close for what Springbank is asking 90£. Sadly in Finland our monopoly government owned shop isn't selling any Springbank :D

Yeah, sadly springbank has consistently been 2x or more european prices. I used to get bottles over seas and pay the shipping, but those days are long long long gone. At least we can get them I suppose.

@@SmirGelMIke and I are in ohio another monopoly....i have to leave the state to get springbank. So I 100% get the pain.

No disagreement on my end... you try the 14.2?

@@topshelfwhisky I picked it up the other day but haven’t cracked it open yet. Maybe this weekend

You would think if the "experiment" didn't yield the desired result, maybe a discount? Or maybe im wrong and this was the goal. 🤷‍♂️

I got the 15 year HB for like 160. That's a value bottles today.

You know it. Already done and scheduled

@@topshelfwhisky Amazing! I've been semi-holding my buying decision to get your thoughts & opinion on it. I do love the previous two releases and have been wondering if the newest one offers something different (or better) to justify the around 200€/$ price tag.

But not next...we have a few bangers before that one!

Oh, that means you didn't think the HB was a banger. I tend to agree

@@RomainRivierethey're all great..but this wasn't my favorite HB oloroso.

Lol, so off it's good? Maybe, gives me a Laphroaig Port & Wine feel. I appreciate something new but... You try the new Hazelburn Oloroso?

Yeah...my score changes day to day...but that day, 85 felt right.

@@topshelfwhisky Not yet, it sounded great from your review. They are so cheap at auction right now.

That’s rough. But also commitment 🤣🤣

That's tough.

It's better, but more so in the sense that it was just more fun. Neither are especially good whiskies. But the PX hit what you want from a PX bomb, CS, 10 year. This..not sure what it was supposed to be.

Substantially, and I wasn't a huge fan of the PX. We reviewed it... Let me put it this way. I would rather have one PX over 5 of this. Strictly talking about consuming/enjoying the whisky.

@@topshelfwhisky welp, that tells me all I need to know 😂 I have a couple backups of the PX one, but I’m not gonna bother searching this one out.

@@topshelfdustin3060 makes sense. Very unfortunate… especially with how springbank had otherwise been killing it it seems like

Single casks can be pretty wonderful at any age. That said, give me the regular 10 over this pretty much any day of the week. I love the CS, but springbanks malt shines wonderfully in the standard 10. These are fun experiments but even as much as I liked the PX bomb they did. It's hard for me to really, honestly, say either are better than the regular old 10.

@@topshelfdustin3060The tens were great back before 2014-ish. It's hard for me to appreciate them as much these days because I'm like an elephant, I remember the old days. I like the 15 more these days. I had some Springbanks single casks back in the day that were bourbon casks. I liked the second fill sherry better especially if they were recharred. As for Kilkerran, I prefer the bourbon casks. I know it's the same staff, but the Kilkerran seems better in bourbon wood these days. Maybe it has to do with the stills. They are newer than Springbank's.

@@topshelfdustin3060I did not like the 20212 PX ten year old Springbank very well. The sherry wood was too dominant in that small batch.

@@keyfinder257 I have a feeling this series is going to polorize beacuse at the end of the day. I doubt any of these are going to be truly well done. Springbank is treating this series as an experiment.

@@keyfinder257 haha, even today they do like 5 batches of 10 a year, and they range greatly from great to no so great. I can't say kilkerran in general has been good. And worse, kilkerran has gotten worse and worse the last few years. I think Ralfy said springbank took someone else's still and "modified it" so I'm not even sure it's a newer still. Just new to them.

All true. Every year is a gamble but Springbank produces as many "hits" as any distillery. This year, the 10 and HB Oloroso we both a dip in final result.

Blind is the best way. Very easy to get carried away with high expectations.

Those are some substantial bottles it beat.

A few LB's have more than justified their pricing, retail, to me. This one didn't do it.

For me, kind of similar to Laphroaig Cardeas series. Some are far better then others. Hard to know in time to stock up.

Lol, thanks! I didn't want to read anything about the wine so I wasn't influenced. Never heard of it before. Didn't sound French. 🤷‍♂️ my bad

true

Happy to help you make a good buying decision