Tasting Notes: Kilkerran: Heavily Peated Small Batch

Kilkerran: Heavily Peated Small Batch (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 59.2% ABV)

Visual: Pale light gold. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Oily. Peaty. Apples. Smooth yet lightly medicinal. Grassy. Slight apricot. Water makes slightly more obvious medicinal.

Body: Honey. Golden syrup. Tannins. Slight tea bags. Apricot. Peaty. Smoked meat. Raisins. Water adds green grapes. Fatty butter. Red grapes. Vanilla.

Finish: Dried meat. Smoked meat. Generally meaty. Raisins. Water adds vanilla and more smoked meat.

Conclusion: Ohhh this no longer feels like a work in progress like the peat in progress releases, this feel like how a peated Kilkerran should do. As mentioned in the background it seems peat in progress and small batch heavily peated are often released during the same years, so this isn’t the natural endpoint of those, but still, this feels like a finished product and a worthy one at that.

Initially coming across as just oily and peaty, as you acclimatise to that you start to realise there is a sweet, apricot like set of notes along with both red and green grapes working there in the background. Such a fruity range behind an impressive level of peat. Even more so, behind all of that there is still that traditional grassy Campbeltown character helping give it some savoury grounding.

It makes it feel much more polished than my previous encounters with Kilkerran peated expressions. There is usually that peat meets grassy character, but this has much more. You need a touch of water to really get the best of it, a lot of the notes are hard to grasp when neat, but with that the lovely, more fruity range comes out.

A genuinely good release. If the end point of the peat in progress leads to anything similar to this I will be happy indeed.

Background: So, previously I have tried Kilkerran peat in progress, which seemingly was the peat equivalent of the work in progress early whiskies they released of Kilkerran while they only had young whisky available so were not ready for standard bottlings. This is not peat in progress, this is small bath, so does that mean they have finally reached a time they can release a standard bottling of peated Kilkerran? Apparently, nope, these small batches have been released for a while. So what makes this small batch and not peat in progress? No idea. Ah well, I’ll take any excuse to try some more Kilkerran. This was the final of the whiskies in Independent Spirit’s Burns night whisky tasting. Saving the big peat bomb for the end. Despite having had a lot of strong and strong flavoured whiskies in the night I did my best to try and turn out decent notes. Hope you like them.

Tasting Notes: Springbank: Hazleburn: 15 Year Oloroso Sherry

Springbank: Hazleburn: 15 Year Oloroso Sherry (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 15 Year: 55.8% ABV)

Visual: Quite deep bronzed gold colour with medium speed thick streaks from the spirit.

Nose: Christmas cake and Christmas pudding. Thick . Sherry cream. Vanilla. Cinder toffee. Plums. Sherry cream. Time adds nutmeg and lots of pepper. Water adds tannin notes.

Body: Sulphur. Tarry. Sultanas. Plums. Brown sugar to burnt sugar. Time brings out more sultanas. Water makes slight tannins.

Finish: Lightly acrid. Sulphurous. Black liquorice. Lightly minty. Times adds more dark fruit but very sulphurous. Water adds rum. Peppery. Sour cream. Warming chilli seeds.

Conclusion: Ok, this is the first fail of the Uber whisky tasting. After three blinders (The two tasting I put up and Van Winkle 12 I had already done notes on many a year ago) this one did not meet expectations. A pity as the Springbank distillery is hands down one of my favourite in existence.

It starts off well, opens up amazingly on the nose with lots of Christmas pudding and Christmas cake, lots of accompanying spirit cream. It promises a rich dessert adventure.

The body is … fine. A bit sulphury, a bit closed, it manages some tarry and dark fruit notes which are nice, but the closed nature means it seems to lock down the ability to really dig in and get past the sulphur notes.

The finish is freaking terrible. Acrid, sulphur, and harsh. It really doesn’t work.

To try to be fair to it I gave it some time to air and open up, then tinkered with adding a drop of water to see if this could help it open up and become something worth trying. It helped. A little.

There is now more sweetness, a touch more spice. While it helps it is still quite harsh in the finish, so doesn’t fix the real big flaw with this whisky.

If it was a lower price whisky it would be distinctly sub optimal. At the price it goes for, now way.

Background: I freaking love the Springbank distillery in all its range of unpeated to heavy peated expressions. They are just so hard to get at the mo, especially the odder bottlings such as this – one of only 9000 bottles. I had enjoyed the 12 year version of this tried earlier in the year, so had good hopes that the few years would help it pick up from that. Again this was at Independent Spirit‘s Uber Whisky tasting – the fourth dram provided (As mentioned the third was Van Winkle 12 I had done notes on before, but was good to return to). Hazleburn is the unpeated take on the Springbank spirit. Not much else to add, as always at tastings like this my notes may not be up to normal standards but I try my best.

Tasting Notes: Kilkerran: Heavily Peated: Peat In Progress

Kilkerran: Heavily Peated: Peat In Progress (Scotland Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 56.4% ABV)

Visual: Pale grain. Fast thick streaks come from the body.

Nose: Heather. Dry smoke. Dried ham. Soot. Water adds a soft lime touch.

Body: Vanilla. Custard. Oily. Oily peat. Smoked beef. Honeycomb. Peach. Water adds more vanilla to vanilla toffee. Nutty oiliness. Smoother peat.

Finish: Light peach. Soot. Charred oak. Peat. Lightly oily. Drying. Water still has slightly numbing alcohol touch. Nutty oils.

Conclusion: This is such a good mix of influences again, like and yet unlike the 8 Year cask finish in so many ways. One big difference is obviously the peat. There is a lovely dry peat take to this and sooty character. Some smoked meat notes but less than you would expect.

However by that less heavy intensity of peat, especially for a heavily peated dram, it leaves room for so much more of the base spirit to show to complement the peat. There is the bourbon influence showing a surprising number and range of sweet but understated notes – the custard, vanilla and such – not a huge part of the whisky but showing the bourbon style and giving good backing to the peat.

Then there is the subtle peach again, so unexpected, this is peaty but restrained just enough as is needed to let all these delicious extra notes come out – an amazing balance of peat to base spirit to barrel ageing, such a good dram.

A lovely peated cask strength whisky.

Background: This was the final listed whisky of Independent Spirit’s lovely Springbank tasting – I say listed as it was not actually the final dram, but more on that later. Another cask strength whisky at the end of a cask strength heavy tasting, I was definitely feeling things by this point, but continued to do my best. This being a heavily peated whisky did help with its big obvious flavours. The peated take on Kilkerran is comparatively recent, hence Peat in progress, comparing to their Work In progress for the early, young age releases of Kilkerran. Anyway, so as well as the extra Hazleburn 10 dram we got mid tasting, we also got a lovely taste after this of what is called a “Cage Bottling” – basically at the distillery each day they do bunch of single bottles each drawn from different casks, and this are held in and sold from the aforementioned cages. Much in demand, and each is unique – this was a special treat to try – our one was a competitively young six year old Longrow which had less peat than you would expect from that dram but lovely strawberry flavours. Due to being at the end of a long tasting (Seven drams including this, most cask strength), and not one you can buy any other bottles of I did not do notes on it, but it was a lovely capstone to the night.

Tasting Notes: Hazelburn: 12 Year Oloroso Cask

Hazelburn: 12 Year Oloroso Cask (Scottish Campbletown Single Malt Whisky: 12 Year: 49.9% ABV)

Visual: Very dark, rich gold. Very fast, thick streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Suet. Plum pudding. Candle wax. Dried apricot. Water makes lighter in general.

Body: Smooth. Light charred oak in oils. Plum pudding. Sultanas. Thai seven spice. Water makes very smooth, still lightly spicy. Dried apricot. Light citrus.

Finish: Spicy air. Thai seven spice. Turmeric. Suet. Sultanas. Water brings out more suet. Dried apricot. Peppery. Light citrus.

Conclusion: This seemed to go down so very well with the majority of the tasting group of the night. For me it is lovely, but I will admit not the stand out of the set. The base spirit of Hazleburn is mainly used to get that great smoothness of mouthfeel, not as smooth as standard Hazleburn 10 though, as the barrel ageing seems to add a bit of alcohol pep despite how smooth the feel is.

When drunk neat the base flavours of Hazleburn are kind of lost to the barrel ageing – though thankfully a few drops of water do allow it to show some fresh fruity citrus notes. What the main flavour is is the influence of the barrel ageing. That makes this so fruity with plum pudding, lots of spice, but controlled by the fruit – there is so much dark fruit!

Like that it is nice, but a touch of water gives it that additional character that makes not just a (admittedly very good) Oloroso sherry dram. Finally showing some of the base distillery character and creating something new, rather than just a very sherry dram, which while good is something I have seen many a time before.

It is very good, not the best of the tasting for me due to the difficulty getting the base character to show, but that is just how high the bar was on this tasting.

Great, not an utter must have but great.

Background: Another from Independent Spirit’s epic Springbank tasting and this is very hard one to get hold of. The odd cask variants, such as this Oloroso cask aged Hazleburn tend to vanish very quickly and often turn up at silly mark ups on auction sites, so I was very chuffed to try this. As a bonus dram not originally listed, we were given a dram of standard Halzeburn 10 to go alongside this so we could directly compare the two. A delicious bonus! Hazleburn is the unpeated spirit from Springbank and also the only one to be triple rather than double distilled to give a smoother spirit, similar to how most Irish whiskies are done. Now, we were quite deep into this tasting by this point, with a lot of cask strength whiskies so my notes were getting harder to do and later read, but I did my best for you, the readers! 🙂 and me the drinker.

Tasting Notes: Springbank: 18 year

Springbank: 18 year (Scotland Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 18 Year: 46% ABV)

Visual: Deep dried apricot to gold. Mix of slow and fast streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Treacle. Honey. Figgy pudding. Sultanas. Black olives. Light salt. Water add pencil shavings, Light oil and a slight cheese funk.

Body: Smooth. Oily. Dry sherry. Fruitcake. Lightly spicy. Adding water makes very smooth. Vanilla toffee. Plums. Cherry pocked biscuits.

Finish: Mild black olives. Dry. Tannins. Spiced tea. Dry sherry. Water adds plums and cherry pocked biscuits.

Conclusion: This is a very rich, dessert like whisky. It is smooth, initially quite dry,yet it quickly shows sweeter dark fruits and builds up a gentle oiliness as you have more sips, countering that dry base and giving great contrast.

It has a lovely balance of sweet to savoury – dark fruits, lightly oily, but instead of the usual Campbeltown grassiness as the savoury side it has mild dark olive notes which work great as a darker contrast here. A similar use of contrast, just different and very well suited here.

Most people at the tasting avoided adding water here, but I found just a few drops really helped it for me. It brings out a huge sweet plumminess and light cherry pocked biscuits in a way that calls both to the advantages of the Springbank style and the barrel ageing. Only a few drops are needed, but like this it is exceptional. Fruity, large, easy drinking but still with so much to explore. It is lightly spicy as well, there is so much going on here.

A few more drops of water makes it a tad more sulphur touched which is a weaker expression that before but still good. I had heard too much water can ruin this one, so with that warning and seeing signs of the excellent quality being lessened I did not add any more.

Overall had neat or with a few drops of water this is fantastic.

Background: Another whisky from the excellent Springbank tasting night at Independent Spirit– oddly I was sure I had done notes on the 18 year before, I have definitely tried it, but looking at the site it seems it has slipped through the net until now so as good time as ever to fix that. Springbank 10 is a long time favourite whisky of mine, and whisky auction flippers have made it really hard to get the rarer bottles in the series, so having this and more in the line up was a treat.

Tasting Notes: Kilkerran: 8 Year Cask Strength

Kilkerran: 8 Year Cask Strength (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 8 Year: 55.8% ABV)

Visual: Pale grain colour. Thick fast streaks come from the spirit.

Nose: Pineapple. Tinned tropical fruit. Pencil shavings. Light soot. Burning candle wax. Hay. Grass. Coconut. Water adds toffee digestives. More water adds white grapes.

Body: Drying. Oak. Pineapple. Light peach. Tinned tropical fruit. Coconut. Water adds more pineapple. Slight tart gapes. More water softens. Cake sponge. Vanilla.

Finish: Dry. Alcohol air. Dry white chocolate. Slightly numbing. Tinned tropical fruit. Grapes. Digestives. Water adds more grapes. Grassy. Oak. More water brings out cake sponge.

Conclusion: This is very bourbon led, but not just bourbon, it manages to let the base spirit breath which is a good combo. The cask strength of the whisky really seems to let both sides show themselves, but there is plenty of room for each drop of water to open up more and more layers.

The bourbon shows itself as massive amounts of tinned tropical fruit, coconut and touches of white chocolate. More so than that there is a lovely pineapple freshness, mush fresher than the more tinned fruit notes and gives a lovely fresh feel to the whole thing.

On top of that is a lovely grassy character that I always associate with the Campbeltown area, along with either digestive notes neat or a softer cake sponge character that makes for a really solid base character.

Most unusual is when you get a touch of peach sweetness showing over lightly tart grapes – and it is this extra touch of sweetness that takes this dram from good to great.

This is a brilliant expression of Kilkerran, of bourbon ageing and of whisky in general.

Background: So, back in the UK and Independent Spirit are putting on a Springbank tasting. Excellent. A great line up, we have seven whiskies in total by the end of which I did notes on four. I have not been doing as many tasting notes at such events recently – basically ever since lockdown, but trying to get back into it again as you can see here. Kilkerran is owned by the same family that makes Springbank so that is why it is included. Not done notes on a Kilkerran since their early work in progress, but have sampled a few over the years and very much enjoyed. This one is all bourbon aged and cask strength.

Tasting Notes: Springbank: Bourbon Wood: 14 Year

Springbank: Bourbon Wood: 14 Year (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 14 Year: 55.8% ABV)

Visual: Pale greened gold. Thick slow streaks.

Nose: Pencil shavings. Moss. Dry nuttiness. White chocolate and vanilla. Water adds vanilla toffee to fudge.

Body: Thick and spirity. White chocolate. Grassy. Oily character. Vanilla. Orange notes. Shreddies. Water adds lime and fudge. Still strong feel. More grassy and moss. Apples. More water adds toffee liqueur.

Finish: Menthol air. White chocolate. Nutty oils. Creamy orange. Light smoke, Water adds lime, grassy character. Peat character comes out. Apples. Marshmallows.

Conclusion: I tried this whisky first at one of Independent Spirit’s Uber whisky tastings – I was taking it easy that night so did not take any notes at the time. What I did take though was a bottle of this home with me. Ok, technically I took it home a short while later – I try not to make such purchases after alcohol has influenced my decisions.

On first sip of this, my own bottle of it, I feared that my drunken memory had fooled me – it was still a solid Springbank – grassy, mossy, smoke and hint of peat, but it didn’t live up to my memory of an excellent stand out whisky. The alcohol character gives this thick, warming, oily character that is really overwhelming and lets little of the subtlety out to play.

Still, at an abv like this has, why was I surprised? So, let us hope that water, as is usual, is the difference maker. So I added a little. Daaaamn. That was indeed, the difference maker. This is now sweeter than the average Springbank – it seems that spending its full time in bourbon wood has given a solid vanilla toffee, fudge and white chocolate set of notes that make a huge contrast to the native grass and peaty character that makes this stand out. Odder still you have this lovely apple character behind it that seems to be an element of the spirit that has not really shown itself before.

It is delightful – the slightly heavier, but not Longrow level peat character comes out now. The savoury grass notes work brilliant against the bourbon backed white chocolate sweetness. Despite me mentioning them several times the sweetness is used in a subtle way – not sickly and nowhere near overpowering the basic Springbank character. They just come together naturally to make a whisky that is very different, while still giving what makes Springbank enjoyable.

While this is not my favourite Springbank, it is probably one of the more unusual, and considering some of the odd oak casks Springbank has been aged in, that says something. It is not that it is radically showy, just that the elements come together for a very different experience – an almost marshmallow like backed Springbank thing of joy. Enjoy it if you can.

Background: As mentioned in the notes I tried this at an Uber whisky tasting at Independent Spirit and was very impressed – so was at least confident that I was going to enjoy this one when I got home. Springbank is from one of only three distilleries in Campbeltown and is probably my favourite (Though I am unsure if the Springbank set, or the more peated Longrow expressions are the best the distillery turns out). This one is, as the name would suggest, purely aged in Bourbon casks which should give quite a different character. Continuing recent efforts to break out classic tunes when drinking – put on some Jack Off Jill – Sexless Demons and Scars. Such a great, angry and powerful album.

Tasting Notes: Springbank: 25 Year

Springbank: 25 Year (Scottish Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 25 Year: 46% ABV)

Visual: Yellow gold.

Viscosity: Mix of fast and thin streaks with some puckering from the spirit.

Nose: Strawberry. Peach melba. Quince rakia. Smooth. Tinned tropical fruit. Mandarin orange. Marzipan. Water makes floral with lots of red berries and caramel.

Body: Smooth. Mandarin orange. Marzipan. Slightly light. Dry. Water adds custard and makes feel thicker. Dry raisins. Peach. Red berries and grapes. Spiced raisins. Light grassiness. Custard and sherry trifle.

Finish: Malt chocolate. Raisins. Smooth. Light menthol and orange juice. Light grapes. Dry rum. Water adds fudge, red berries, dry Thai seven spice and a light grassiness.

Conclusion: Old whisky tends to feel very smooth, but can also feel kind of light. This can be a shock to people who have not had aged whisky before and expect it to burst with flavour from the first moment. Generally I find you need to take your rime with it, let it fill the air inside your mouth and seep into the taste-buds – that is when they get going. Basically that is what you get with this.

The aroma is complex though – it is that which tells you what to look for in the body, what may come out if you give it time and attention. It bursts with all the levels of notes that you could hope for – rich red fruit, peach melba, orange notes. There is so much going on, and while the body doesn’t quite ever match this amazing aroma – if you ever find a whisky that does – then you will have one of the all time greats.

Therefore, initially as indicated before, the first sip may seem a bit of a let down. It is quite light, and may vanish fast leaving marzipan sweetness, and hints of light fruit. Be prepared though, take your time, and add no more than a drop of water and you will be ready ( lots of people avoided adding that drop of water- feeling it didn’t need it at this age. I found it actually made the whisky a tad thicker, and really opened it up. So I would recommend trying at least before you finish the whisky – but no more than a drop). You get dryer notes coming with that – light dry raisins and sherry spice – now it is good, not exceptional but good – spicy grounding below the fruit notes. Take your time and slowly much more red fruit develops – now you get most of the notes hinted by the aroma, the fruit burst, before that leads out into dry spiced rum and raisins in the finish.

Time again like the water, gives this more body somehow – slight stewed fruit notes, and a more solid, less shimmery light take to the marzipan. This really is one to take as long as you can with.

This is very different to the standard Springbank – there is only a light grassiness, most of that style is lost – and very little of the subtle smoke that the whisky usually trades on. Instead you get a lot more influence from the oak – it keeps hints of the Springbank style, but is drier, and much fruitier with spicy depth. Very nice – very subtle and complex. Not worth the 350 odd quid price, but very nice.

Background: As a huge Campbeltown, and by that I generally mean Springbank, fan (There are a total of three Distilleries there now) I was very much happy to hear that this was part of the Uber whisky tasting at Independent Spirit. This spirit was aged in Sherry and Bourbon casks, much as you would expect, then merged together in refill Port casks. Which is less expected, but very awesome. This is one of only 900 bottles releases in 2017. Again, I know how lucky I was to get to try this. Anyway, as always for these events – I was doing my notes in a social environment, with five strong whiskies back to back – my notes may be affected by other peoples thoughts, the drunkenness, and the other whisky I had. However, as before, for trying five expensive and rare whiskies like this I could hardly miss the chance to do some notes. Hope they are ok by you.

Tasting Notes: Springbank: Local Barley: 11 Year

Springbank: Local Barley: 11 Year (Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky: 11 Years: 53.1% ABV)

Visual: Pale gold.

Viscosity: Mix of slow puckering and fast streaks.

Nose: Peat smoke. Wheat field. Vanilla. Slight grapes. Slight sour character. Buttery shortbread. Sulphur touch. Menthol. Water brings more sour fruits.

Body: Slight sour grapes, alcohol touch. Vanilla toffee. Oily. Water brings slight caramel, lightly grassy character. Apples and peppery character.

Finish: Floral air. Strong alcohol. Quince rakia. Slight white wine. Vanilla. Light oily nuts. Malt chocolate and toffee. Dry Madeira. Water gives a menthol air, smoke and apples. Drying notes.

Conclusion: This is very unusual for a Springbank. It does have the grassy character, the slight smoke – it is identifiable as a Springbank. However it is unusual in that it has a slightly sour, kind of fresh taste to it. It reminds me a bit of quince rakia, and it it makes it a fresher, less heavy base that gives this an entirely different feel overall.

Into that freshness is a light vanilla sweetness – the two interact interestingly with those aforementioned Springbank core elements – the grassiness isn’t very pronounced, instead giving a slight solid grounding to what is actually a quite clean feeling spirit. Also, in that clean spirit some of the younger spirit flavours – apples and green fruits, but delivered in a smooth aged whisky style. It even has a slight menthol freshness mixing in with unusual base, resulting a a minty touched mouth tingling feel overall.

It really does emphasis that unusual base – sour grapes touched and tingling. I would call it unique, except I actually have a recent reference point – this feels like a single malt equivalent to the 40 year Timorous Beastie that confused me so much at the last Uber tasting. This isn’t as complex, but is heavier and thicker – however they both show the same unusual tart mouthfeel.

I find this more an interesting experience than an awesome standout whisky, so it isn’t the best of the Springbank range – however it still shows the Springbank quality and is very good. One I’d say to definitely try if you get the chance, but hard to justify grabbing a full bottle of.

Background: Second of the whiskies I tried at the second Uber Whisky tastings that Independent Spirit have done this year. I am a huge fan of Springbank, so this was one I really looked forwards to. This is the second release of “Local barley”, whisky made with barley from local farms (in this case Bere barley from Aros Farm). The first release was a 16 year, this one is 11 year and one of approximately 9000 bottles. Anyway, as always for these events – I was doing my notes in a social environment, with five strong whiskies back to back – my notes may be affected by other peoples thoughts, the drunkenness, and the other whisky I had. However, as before, for trying five expensive and rare whiskies like this I could hardly miss the chance to do some notes. Hope they are ok by you.

Tasting Notes: Glen Scotia: 15 Year

Glen Scotia: 15 Year (Scottish Single Malt Campbeltown Whisky: 15 Year: 46% ABV)

Visual: Deep bronzed gold.

Viscosity: Quite a few fast, thick streaks.

Nose: Golden syrup cakes. Gingerbread. Light alcohol presence. Chestnut honey. Coffee cake. Nutty. Milk chocolate.

Body: Light up front. Coffee cake. Gritty. Alcohol at the back. Dry honey. Water brings out grassy and slightly waxy character. Apricot. Vanilla toffee.

Finish: Gritty. Bitter. Shredded wheat. Coffee cake, Grassy. Chocolate malt drinks. Sour dough. Water makes waxy and slight brown bread. Dried apricot and light spice.

Conclusion: Darn it, just when I thought I was getting into Glen Scotia. On the nose this looked to be another one playing a binder. In fact looked good on the eyes as well. It all looked set to take a deeper, darker set of flavours to play amongst the native grassy, slightly waxy character.

Yeah, well, the body didn’t deliver that. I’ve given it both time and water and neither helped that much. For such a strong aroma, and for a respectable 46% ABV, the body actually comes in very light up front. Behind that initial light impression it is then a tad gritty – you do get some apricot and coffee notes but generally it Is emptier and yet also slightly rougher than expected. I can like rough but with big flavour. I can live with a light front for a smooth character. This has neither.

The finish is more to expectations with that Campbeltown grassy character, but again coming in a bit gritty. Throughout the whisky there is a solid coffee cake character, and a light waxy style, which are the best characteristics. Together by themselves they would provide a gripping and soothing whisky. Unfortunately put together with everything else it, overall, feels rough and empty in a slightly contradictory fashion.

Not doing much to bring me back to Glen Scotia again.

Background: Bit of a mixed background for old Glen Scotia, I love the Campbeltown area, but mainly for Springbank, on the other hand I recently tried a miniature of Glen Scotia that I adored, so I decided to grab this 15 year from Independent Spirit to give a try. There are only three distilleries in Campbeltown now, two of which owned by the same people. This is the odd third child of the group. Drank while listening to Garbage – Strange Little Birds, still not as good as their first two albums but I’ve not got bored of it yet which is a good sign.