Longrow Red – the final goodbye to the series

When we participated in the Springbank Society European Tour a few months ago, we learned of the pending doom for the Longrow Red series. In short: it is cancelled. No need to cry over the fact that Longrow does not get a lot of exposure from the Springbank Distillery where this peated variant is made. We have learned that there will be a new series which will consist of 100 proof bottled Longrows, allowing (probably) for more playing around with cask makeup and such. Fans of whisky matured on wine can still expect to find the occasional wine influence there too. So, all is good in the world, is it not? In any case it should make todays candidate the very last bottling in the Longrow Red series. Let’s take a look.

Longrow Red 7 years old, bottled at 57,1 % abv

Makeup: This 7 year old Longrow matured for 4 years in Refill Bourbon and an additional 3 years in Pinot Noir casks. Enough for everyone, since 10.000 bottles were filled of this Red. The abv makes this exactly a 100 proof expression, so maybe an insight into things to come?

General impressions: Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus, now this hits you with a fruity brick! Concentrated cherries, so powerful, you might almost forget this is a peated whisky. If you would let someone blindly take a sniff here, I would not be surprised that one would not immediately say this is a whisky. We will return later with a drop of water. On the palate, this Longrow continues to be an extremely fruity beast, but the wine casks have left a very drying stamp on the whole. It is over the top for me, like licking your Wellingtons after someone smeared some strawberry marmalade on it. Yes, I know, this sounds more like a reference to clips on PH than a tasting note, but I am just delivering what the senses tell me.

Alright, we added a dash of water. That settles things down to more earthly levels. Literally too, more peat, more wet dirt, but this bright red note never leaves the premises. A happy farm where the animals produce strawberry and cherry droppings. Yes, yes, this blog is getting out of control! A diluted glass will not help prevent me from saying this is winesky; more wine than whisky. But sweet lord, what a winesky it is!

Conclusion: A rollercoaster of a whisky, and loads of fun. I am not really sure how to score this honestly. Taking a step back, the expression is technically fine. There are no off-notes, the whisky fully delivers on its promise of being a Longrow Red, and there is still a good amount of peat to satisfy the smokeheads who love this. You really have to like the style (which I normally do not) but this was a good trip.

Score: 87 points

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