New releases ... Longrow CV

This is one of the year's long awaited new releases from Longrow. It is produced by the Springbank distillery, which is located on a spit of land on the west Highland coast called Campbeltown. Longrow is Springbank's heavily peated version of their whisky. The main differences from the regular Springbank whisky that you can buy, other than the levels of peatiness, are that Longrow is only produced for a short period of the year (approx 1 month) and it is double distilled, whereas Springbank is distilled two and a half times. 'CV' stands for 'Curriculum Vitae' according to the distillery and is named as such because it contains different ages of whisky, with the oldest being 18 years old and the youngest being 6 years old. I don't quite understand that logic, but anyway!

The nose is pungent, smoky and earthy (something like sweet charcoal smoke). When tasted, there is an initial crispness that hits your mouth that reminded me of cider/apples. However, the smokiness hits almost straight way. This didn't overpower the other flavours, in fact more developed. I got some vanilla, a hint of coconut, some menthol and pine needles. This pine element sounds strange, but it was there in the finish and reminded me of disinfectant. This spoiled what was otherwise a pleasant whisky. It is decent value, being priced around £30. I would try it if you find very smoky whiskies too much, as the smokiness is there but is more subtle and allows other interesting flavours through.