Review #601 - Hazelburn 12 Year Oloroso Cask Matured (2022)

Springbank distillery produces 3 types of new make - Longrow (heavily peated, twice distilled), Hazelburn (unpeated, triple distilled), and Springbank (lightly peated, 2.5 times distilled). Of these, Hazelburn and Longrow enjoy the status of the smaller production runs, with estimates sitting at roughly 30,000 LPA for each, while the Springbank spirit style is closer to 200,000 or 250,000 LPA on its own.

In our area, Hazelburn is the most difficult to come by - Longrow's core range 'Peated' bottle is hardly shelf stable, but we can find it several times a year; on the other hand, it's quite rare to see a Hazelburn bottle. The 10 Year core range bottle is tricky enough to find, and these sherry-matured special editions are very difficult to procure. The sherry-matured Hazelburns also vary in age and strength - they're truly one-off releases, each one unique.

The bottle we're reviewing today carries a 12 year age statement, and the Hazelburn spirit was fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks - first fill, or fresh, sherry casks at that. At bottling in 2022, the strength was reduced to a still-punchy 49.9% ABV, and 9,000 total bottles were distributed.

Hazelburn 12 Year Oloroso Cask Matured (2022)

Scotland/Campbeltown - Single Malt

Available Price: USD 249 (2025)

Age Statement: 12 Years

Strength: 49.9% ABV

Cask Makeup: First fill Oloroso sherry casks

Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled September 2010, bottled November 2022; 9,000 bottles

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 2 times over 2 months; bottles at 90% and 80% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes

Nose: Rich, dirty sherry - farmy funky, with mushrooms and strong earthy notes. Pepper adds a soft spice, but there are sweet notes of orange, strawberry, and raspberry; grapefruit adds a tart fruit. More time brings old rotten wood notes.

Palate: The mouthfeel has a medium thickness; fizzy red fruit greets us, especially cranberry, but also strawberry candies and sugar-coated raspberries. Earthy notes, some wood char, and a mild sulphur note come next, and this has a nice oily, savory background; it's cask-forward, but hints of spirit still linger. Later, we get hints of red meat and a darker cola note.

Finish: Wood spice, oily sausage, and slate - varied and complex, with a good mixture of sweet, dry, and savory flavor. Red berries still bring some fizzy fruit, but sassafras, salt, and a hint of light beer add more unusual dimensions. The oily texture lingers, and it's a medium-long finish.

Final Note: A very nice example of Hazelburn - quite different from the core range bottles, which have more of an ex-bourbon influence, at least in our experience. This one is definitely dominated by the cask, but as usual with Springbank distillery, there's still some strong spirity character lingering, which adds a lot of depth. This is quite a complex whisky - sweet notes, savory notes, mild spicy notes too. Lots of fun to dig into.

Value here isn't as good, at least here in the US, where the price has been jacked up in comparison to the price directly from the distillery. These special editions of Springbank whiskies are generally over $200, which is a bit of a tough sell, especially for a 12 year old whisky; that said, it is a great whisky, and could be worth it to the right person.

Our Average Rating: 8.0 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 5.09

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.