Springbank Palo Cortado 10 Year Old:
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Today we dive into the second of Springbank's new sherry cask finished series. This one using Palo Cortado casks. Coming in at 55% and a staggering near $200 MSRP...we have to ask if we're crazy for even buying this!
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I genuinely think all 5 releases of Springbank sherry wood series would be all around 85 - 88. But the important thing about this series is that they don’t mean to be the best whisky Springbank can make, it’s about the experiment. At least that’s what David Allan from Springbank told me. In that regard I think they definitely worth the try at retail price.
I got both the sherry cask finished at UK retail price and I like them but actually prefer the core range 10.
Glenmorangie also has a Palo Cortado and it has a lot of the same issues. I do have this Springbank, I got it for $179. and it's a lot better than the Glenmorangie but both have a real artificial sweetness note that's disappointing. I've read that the grapes used to create Palo Cortado don't develop normally and so it's very hard to create. That rarity seems to be why these whisky brands are making these as opposed to great flavor
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
Thanks again guys for your honest reviews and congrats Mike on your upcoming fatherhood.
Always! and thank you
Can't wait to send Mike a welcome note to his sweet Palo, or Cortado 🤣
I love your honesty! With that said, you really should try out some sherry. It's a tremendously concentrated, unique, and interesting wine. The dry ones are excellent with food and all you need is a tiny glass. Now Fino and Manzanilla is a little alien but Amontillado is just lovely.
Congratulations on the baby on the way! Does not sound like one to seek out. I got the PX release and don't really plan on searching for the rest of the releases in the series...Glenmorangie released a Palo Cortado finished 12 year old last year - sounds like a good way to test the waters with PC finishes for under $100.
Great job fellas, i must admit i loved this one and im a palo cortado fan boy....i also picked up a back up....cheers fellas
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
So far not a fan of the Palo Cortado based on a 12 year Arran. At 200 for this 10 year, I'll stick with the SB CS 12 year Batch 21, the "Frankenstein" 4 way finished at half the price. CHEERS!!
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!!!
Thanks for the Review! It stopped me from Pursuing This and I am Grateful. With as many Springbanks you have had, I trust your judgment.
Glad I could help!
I'm always happy to save money considering all the choice available today (that one not being easily available mind you), so thank you ! Most interesting Palo Cortado release I tried so far & might still have a sample to review some day is that 1997 Deanston 21 yo, in which you really can get both distillery character & typical notes from the P.C....wish you to try it some day, missed its release year price, now it's too late for me on secondary...
That's a rare bottle. I haven't bought a Deanston in a while.
Good idea is to pick up a lustau sherry of each major type to try including px, oloroso, fino, palo cortado, amontillado, just for scientific purposes to assess how they impact the whisky.
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.
Great review guys
Thanks bro!
Great video guys but 200usd in Sweden it is 100usd
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.
Palo Cortado is a nice variation,IMHO. And I would expect tolhis to be much less than $200, the Hazelburn 15 is $259.
10 year is just not enough to go crazy with the prices. These are experiments and with a premium hahahaha
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.
$200 for a 10 year old Springbank? I doubt I'll do that from what you guys have described, I think I'd rather pay upwards of $300 for a 5 year Bruichladdich Octomore. Thanks for another review fellas!
No disagreement on my end... you try the 14.2?
@@topshelfwhisky I picked it up the other day but haven’t cracked it open yet. Maybe this weekend
tell me the last Hazelburn 15 is coming next?
You know it. Already done and scheduled
@@topshelfwhisky Amazing! I've been semi-holding my buying decision to get your thoughts & opinion on it. I do love the previous two releases and have been wondering if the newest one offers something different (or better) to justify the around 200€/$ 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.
Thanks for the review. Interesting take, although I totally disagree! 😊
I bought one recently here in the Netherlands for under €100, which is a steal, I think. And it absolutely blew me away! I loved the nose, and the palate is for me one of the best I've had. Absolutely worth it for the price, and I would definitely buy another one if I could find one. I'd give this one 94 points. Ah well, to each their own, I guess.
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!
i buy one bottle of it...i'll taste !
Been waiting/hoping for this one!
We make a strong effort for the annual SB releases.
If 200 dollar is crazy. Imagine in Malaysia it cost around 400 dollar for this bottle ✌🏻😂
That’s rough. But also commitment 🤣🤣
That's tough.
How much better was the PX version of this?
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
I had this at a Springbank tasting last week. I liked it, it was good, but it was not out of this world quality like the price indicates. The Palo Cortado is a good sherry for my taste buds. It is super dry and I think it is a very good match for Springbank, but I found it to be way overdone. If the sherry casks had been dried out more or at least if the finish had been shorter (which still wouldn't be as good) it would be better, maybe even very good. Sadly the hype has turned this in to a downright not worth the price at all whisky.
Cheers guys🙂
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.
I wasn’t that impressed with this one in a vacuum but then in a blind with longrow reds, kilkerran port and springbank 12 the Palo cortado won
Blind is the best way. Very easy to get carried away with high expectations.
Those are some substantial bottles it beat.
These SB special bottles like this and LB are just trade bottles for me if I can get one, which is not often.
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.
Great review boys! This is a bugger! I can’t decide the score still.
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.
Interesting review. I was not impressed when I tasted it recently (cured any FOMO I may have had). Won’t be looking for it - plenty more great pours to chase…. Cheers.
true
I think this bottle is fantastic. But I got mine for $150. Is it worth that price? Oh hell yeah. These days a standard ten costs around 90 dollars. Gimme a break, the Palo Ten is a no brainer. Love it. This said, I like the OB 21 quite a bit more. I got a sample of that. But my 6-7 year cages were better than both of those. Age isn't everything my friends.
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.
Pablo… French… WTF bro ? 😂🥂
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
£100/$130 in the UK at retail but pretty difficult to get.
Well then...I think I'm gonna pass on this one. I've spent enough recently as it is. Cheers!
Happy to help you make a good buying decision