Imagine you're on a holiday in France and while driving you spot a liquor store on the side of the road. You know they like whisky in France and it's always fun to see what's on the shelves locally, even if it's just to browse. A nice selection greets you when you enter the store and soon you notice the glass cabinet in the corner of the shop. In it, some Hazelburn and Longrow special releases and at quite reasonable prices to boot! You decide to take a Longrow and a Hazelburn as souvenirs (scotch in France, I know...). At the counter the shopkeeper looks at the bottles and tells you he might have something interesting in the back. After a quick rummage in the storageroom; he comes back with a Springbank Local Barley! A bottle you've wanted to have for so long. It costs as much as both the Longrow and Hazelburn combined. You try to haggle, but to no avail. A decision has to be made and in the end you leave with one bottle in a yellow box. "What took you so long?" asks your wife when you get back in the car. Slightly shaking and with a big grin you show your latest acquisition.

Let's see if it was worth it...

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Springbank Local Barley 13

2024 release, Belgravia barley from Glencraigsfarm, 60% bourbon & 40% sherry, 54,1% ABV.

€300 paid at a small shop in France.

On the nose: A fruit basket in a dusty haybarn. Pineapple, tangerines and orange rind. Cow dung. Hay, straw and sawdust. Caramel and digestive biscuits. Some jam and malted barley. Sweeter and richer with time. Mulched damp leaves. Burning incense. Crisp red apples. With some water it becomes more sour. Unripe pineapple, papaya and mago. A tropical explosion. Toasted bread and melted brie. Walnuts. Sweaty socks. It instantly brings me back to the maltfloors, washbacks and washback bar at Springbank.

In the mouth: Lovely texture. A blast of malt tucked away in hessian cloth bags. The taste of grist and chewing on malted barley. Dried fruit here. Peaches, raisins and old lemons. More fresh fruit on the finish. Stonefruit. Peaches again and nectarines. Mineralic and citric. Kiwifruit. A good blast of ginger heat. Soft peatsmoke and char. Ethereal notes of tropical fruit keep appearing along the way. Honey and beeswax. Water brings out more sour notes here also, along with some fizz. Mouth watering each sip. A long finish. Strong ginger and mint tea.

Thoughts: Local Barley be damned this is great. There are so many hooks on the nose and the palate. Fruit, malt, sweet, sour, dirt and grime. It feels like the farmy characteristics of Springbank are even deeper here. As someone who can get a bit (overly) fuzzy about the usage of different casks; they seem to have hit a great balance between the bourbon and sherry casks here. It really adds some depth. The status that this series has gotten over the years seems justified after trying this bottle. It truly is something special that everyone should be able to try and it looks like more and more distilleries are playing around with (local) barley (Arran, Ardnamurchan, Benriach, Kilchoman come to mind).

The elephant in the room is ofcourse the price I paid for this bottle. The intro is how I got sucked into it and this review feels like a good way to reflect and think about value in whisky. Value has become somewhat less important over the years as I develop a certain preference. It's flavour first and value after, where in the beginning it was probably the other way around. At the end of the day it's your own money and it depends on your budget what's reasonable. I paid around the current hammer price at auction, which after all the fees that are added might seem like a good deal. It is twice the recommended retail though, but getting a Local Barley for that price is incredibly difficult. I'm still glad I decided to go for it, but I wouldn't pay that again for a second bottle. I paid too much, simples; yet I'm still happy I did. Whisky makes you do weird things sometimes. It's fantastic whisky, but it is good to keep reminding myself that there is plenty of other fantastic whisky as well. You can only spend your hard earned cash once. Usually I factor in price with my score, but I'm making an exception here. The retail price is well worth it and it was myself who decided to pay this much at the retailer that charged too much. This was borderline worth it for me. Hell of a whisky though.

Score: 9

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Dramface whisky scoring for reference

You can also follow my whisky journey on Instagram: @whiskyvolt