Springbank Madeira Wood 2002 17y

I'll use a trusty 15 year old Springbank at 46% as a refefence point for this. I wasnt amazingly thrilled about the 15 year old Rum Wood release, and didn't realize this has a base of rum/bourbon casks before picking one up. Three years in Madeira casks is a good amount of time though so I haven't lost all hope.

Well, I hope it would be a bit different, but I get a similar feeling like with the 15y Rum Wood. It's not very specific. Less depth than the sherried standard 15y of recent years. A quite nondescript palate for a Springbank and overall less exciting than I hoped for. Do I prefer the standard 15? Yes I do. The Madeira seems to have added a small bit of complexity on top of the bourbon and rum base, at least. I keep being underwhelmed by rum cask matured whisky - with the notable exception of a Long Island Whisky IB which, yes, happens to be a Springbank. Maybe it led me astray and I should steer clear of rum casks in the future? I will also do a review of the standard 15 soon. Promise!