Last week, Springbank announced the release of a new 21yo for the UK market. It's a single cask, at about 49.5% from an oloroso sherry barrel. Now Springbank's normal "everyday" whisky is one of (IMVHO) the best value ten year olds around. It's about 37.50GBP and utterly brilliant. The 15yo is about 55GBP, and still a very, very good whisky. The 21 single cask went up for 180GBP, in line with last years 25yo release, which was over 200GBP.
Now I appreciate it's a single cask, and that there's a little froth in the market right now, but even so, that seems like quite a lot of money. The 16yo Sherry Cask released a few months back was on for about 90-odd quid, to this is quite a jump (especially when you compare it to other 18-21yo single malts).
However, as a Springbank fan, I was *relatively* interested in the release.
What also appears to have happened at the same time as the SB price increases on their limited bottlings is that the retailers have got in on the act. As background, the bottlings from previous years (where they are available) are 250GBP and up (the 25yo is available for about 400GBP). So on the day SB released this, their shop (WM Cadenheads) had it up for 180. Others didn't. One, for example, had it at 318GBP. On the day it was released.
I don't know why I'm complaining. I'm not really. I'm just disappointed. And saddened.
Sigh.