After casting around a little bit more, I reminded myself that I don’t particularly like totally “clean” scotches. the un-peated ones often seem a little lacking, and those that have very little oak influence also seem a bit blah–so what I realize that I’m really looking for is high quality scotch that has judicious peat and judicious oak. It’s pretty clear that the overall trend here is that the scotch houses have had a harder time maintaining aged stocks, and I suspect as a result have been double oaking/double casking, etc, to try to make up the difference. there have been some good suggestions here that I will continue to seek out. In the meantime, I may just have to spend up for Springbank 10.
Springbank 10 is not only excellent, but also unique, in my experience.