Longrow Red Cabernet Franc
How often have you opened a new bottle of whisky, poured the first dram, and thought to yourself, “hmm… this is OK, but it’s kinda disappointing” only to come back to the same bottle a few weeks or months later and say to yourself “what the heck was I thinking, this is delicious”? I don’t know how often other whisky fans experience this, but for me it’s not uncommon, especially when it comes to cask strength whisky. Sometimes (maybe even all the time), a bottle of whisky needs some exposure to air in order to open up and reveal itself. And on top of that, there’s also the matter of readjusting our expectations of what a particular bottle will bring to the plate, and learning to appreciate it for what it is. I wrote about this recently in my review of Springbank 14 Bourbon Wood, so I don’t want to repeat myself too much, but suffice it to say, I believe that to fully appreciate a whisky, we need to spend a good amount of time with the whisky. A simple sample of a dram just isn’t sufficient to truly know it.
Whisky enjoyment and patience go hand in hand.
I’m going to take a moment and toot my own horn here, so bare with me for a minute. The majority of whisky reviews you’ll find online or in magazines are done based off of a single sample-sized bottle, rather than an extended, full bottle experience. While there’s nothing wrong with that method of a review, that’s not how I do things here on the Mule. My reviews are always based on multiple tastings (always at least five, often more). The whisky opinions and tasting notes I write evolve just as the whisky in the bottle (or at least my experience with it) evolves. Now perhaps that will change someday. I very well may eventually review samples of whisky, but if I ever do, I will be sure to make it very clear that I’m reviewing just a sample and not a full bottle. And at this point, I own more than enough bottles to keep me busy for quite some time without the need to rely on samples.
Anyhow, on to the whisky at hand—Longrow Red Cabernet Franc. What does this long ramble about whisky evolution have to do with today’s review? Well, this Longrow just so happens to be a bottle that I was a little disappointed with when it was first opened, but over the course of a few weeks evolved to the point of what may very well be a glowing review.
Longrow Red has been something of a “unicorn” bottle for me. It’s not an easy bottle to find in stores. I had previously been given a sample of the Longrow Red Pinot Noir edition from my generous cousin and loved it, but couldn’t find it for sale anywhere. I actually did see a bottle of Red in a store in Atlanta a few years back, but I decided to buy something else instead (a decision I came to regret). Recently a store near me finally got in a few bottles, and I was happy to bring one home.
Some details on the whisky itself—Longrow is the heavily peated whisky produced at the Springbank distillery. Red is a limited edition series of Longrow that was aged (or at least finished) in various types of red wine casks. This Cabernet Blanc version is the latest Longrow Red release, having been aged nine years in ex-bourbon barrels before being finished for two additional years in fresh Cabernet Franc barriques from the De Toren Private Cellar in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Longrow Red Cabernet Franc Review
Type: Single Malt Scotch
Region: Campbeltown
Age: 11 years
ABV: 55.9%
Non chill-filtered
Natural color
Nose
Fruit candy. Gummies. Red licorice. Chocolate. Cigar leaf mixed with a little cigarette ash. Fruity and sweet with bonfire smokiness. Quite appealing.
Palate
Loads of cherry. Islay-esque peat smoke with a Campbeltown twist, slightly earthy, but also oily and coastal. Red licorice. Strawberry rhubarb sauce. Creamy milk chocolate. Fruity and a touch tannic—the red wine influence is clearly present. Maybe not the most complex palate (although certainly not simple either), but what’s here is very tasty. The mouthfeel is thick, rich, and oily.
Finish
Long and sweet. The fruit and candy notes linger. Ginger and rhubarb. Milk chocolate and malted milk balls. Toasted vanilla marshmallows.
Overall
When I first opened this bottle of Longrow, it was a tad restrained. The flavors weren’t quite popping out, and I was a little disappointed with it. When I came back to it a few weeks later, I found that it had opened up beautifully. Bursting with fruit, especially cherry, a nice touch of milk chocolate, and wonderfully balanced peat smoke. Oh, and that lovely bit of strawberry rhubarb—one of my favorite flavor combinations in the world—makes me especially happy. I’ve grown to love this bottle. Really terrific stuff, it’s no wonder the Longrow Red editions are always so hard to find.
SCORE: 8/10 (Great)
Final Thoughts
In my review of Laphroaig Cairdeas 2018, I mentioned my skepticism towards cask finished whiskies. A wine finish can simply be an attempt to mask an otherwise unremarkable dram—and in the case of the Cairdeas, my skepticism was warranted. But here we have cask finishing done well. This Longrow spent a full two years in the finishing Cabernet Franc casks, which seems to have been just enough to give it a good wine influence without overwhelming the whisky. I’m personally a fan of full wine maturations, at least in some cases, but I can see how a prolonged exposure to fresh wine barriques could result in an overly tannic malt, at least to some palates. I imagine that to my palate this might be even better had it been a full wine cask maturation, but regardless, this is a fine whisky as it is and worth seeking out.
Buying Advice: If you can find a bottle and have the cash, Longrow Red is a great choice. I will point out that it is a little on the pricy side at over $100 (I paid around $130). If you’re comfortable spending that kind of money on a bottle of whisky and enjoy a good and fruity peated malt, go for it.
Drink This Not That: Drink this. It’s a fairly unique single malt, as not too many other heavily peated whiskies are aged in red wine casks and bottled at cask strength.
Questions about my scoring system? Refer to the Review Method & Scoring Scale page.
For more reviews, check out the Whisky Review Archive.
