Review #102: Springbank 18 Fresh Sherry Cask

Last Thursday, before the COVID-19 crisis quarantined us all starting this week, we went to Overproof. The reservations had been long outstanding – I made them early February, so I felt obligated to go (there was a $25/pp cancellation fee on Resy). The normally packed upstairs enclave (Overproof is the small semi-secret bar above the main bar ABV) was relatively quiet, so we had the bartenders primarily to ourselves.

The Overproof menu is excellent. There’s a cocktail flight with tasting sized cocktails of their main five (very creative) cocktails, a la carte options of said cocktails, and flights of rare spirits and negronis. We went with several of the a la carte options, a negroni flight (very fun), and the scotch rare flight series.

The $52 scotch flight featured Campbeltown scotches with interesting finishes: Longrow Sauternes, Springbank 18 fresh sherry, and Kilkerran Oloroso. They were enjoyable but not bottles that I plan to purchase anytime soon.

The Springbank 18 fresh sherry cask captured my imagination; I think I’ve had plenty of refill sherry casks by now, but a fresh sherry is interesting – particularly since usually it’s advised against for older scotches because it can become overwhelmingly oaky. I’ve had several other Springbank 18 releases (like the ex-bourbon cask), but a 2018 release was from fresh sherry casks.

Quick overview of our scoring system

Additional Information

• ABV: 46%
• Distilled: March 2000
• Bottled: July 2018
• Age: 18 years
• Cask type: Fresh Sherry
• Number of bottles: 282

About

• Springbank releases various 18-year-old releases, with its first edition released in 2009 of a 80% ex-sherry and 20% ex-bourbon
• The only Scottish distillery to claim performing 100% of the the whisky-making processes, from malting the barley to bottling the spirit on-site
• Owned by J&A Mitchell & Company, who also own Glengyle and William Cadenheads
• Campbeltown once had over thirty active distilleries