A Closer Look At... The Springbank Distillery

With four batches launched recently we thought it was high time we took a closer look at the iconic Campbeltown distillery.

The Springbank distillery is just one of three surviving distilleries from the once thriving Campbeltown region that had more than 25 distilleries in its late 1800s heyday.

Springbank is built on the site of the previously illicit still used by Archibald Mitchell was officially founded in 1828 but, what else do you know about this distillery?

About the distillery

The first reference to Campbeltown whisky is recorded in 1591 and by 1814 there were 22 legal distilleries in operation in the Campbelltown area.

Springbank was officially founded in 1828, some of the buildings the distillery is housed in today date back to this time, alongside buildings that were used for the long closed distilleries of Longrow, Rieclachan, Union, Springside and Argyll.

Brothers John and William Mitchell, Archibald’s sons, take ownership of Springbank. Later, John takes his son into the business, forming the company J&A Mitchell, making Springbank the oldest independent family-owned distillery in Scotland.

Production Capacity

Springbank do things a little differently than everybody else. It’s the only distillery in Scotland that malts it’s entire needs of barley using its own floor maltings. It also supplies all the malted barley for the neighbouring distillery Glengyle

The equipment at Springbank remains traditional: the Porteus mill dates from the 1940s, they still use an open-top cast-iron mash tun that’s around one hundred years old, and their wooden washbacks are made from boat skin larch.

Ferments are very long – in excess of 100 hours; with low-gravities which both produces a low-strength wash (circa 5%) but it has a high levels of esters. This fruity base is then distilled in three different ways, depending on the style being produced; Springbank, Longrow, and Hazelburn

The distillery is equipped with just three stills; one wash still and two spirit stills. The wash still is unique, certainly in Scotland, being both direct fired and having internal steam coils. Condensers are used on the wash still and one of the spirit stills, while a worm tub is used on the other spirit still.

Springbank accounts for 80% of their production capacity.  The lightly peated (12-15 ppm) was is partially triple-distilled and is often quoted as being distilled 2.5 times. The direct fired wash still works as normal producing low wines, the strongest portion of which are directed to the spirit still charger, while the remainder is redistilled in the intermediate spirit still which has a worm tub. The low wines are put into the feints receiver along with the heads and tails from the spirit still distillation. This mix makes up 80% of the final charge, with the low wines from the wash still making up the remaining 20%.

Longrow accounts for just 10% of the distillery’s production It’s a heavier and smokier with its malted barley peated to 50-55 ppm. It runs through a slightly different process to Springbank, with just two distillations with the second distillation carried out in the spirit still which has the worm tub.

Hazelburn uses unpeated malt and accounts for another 10% of their production capacity and undergoes standard triple distillation using the three stills in sequence.

Did you know?

Financial difficulties in the 1980 resulted in the Springbank distillery was closed between 1979 and 1987

The Campbelltown region listed by the Scotch Whisky Association was almost resigned to history in the late 1990s when Springbank became the only operating distillery on the peninsular. Glen Scotia was closed in 1984 and remained closed until 1999. When the Mitchell family opened Glengyle, the region’s future was secure with three distilleries, which at the time, was the same number that were located in the Lowland region.

While the distillery is well known for being the only Scottish distillery that malts all of its requirements, during the whisky boom of the late 1950’s the maltings were actually closed in 1960. It wasn’t until 1991 that the floor maltings reopened at the distillery.

While many distilleries produce a seperate sub-range of single malts that showcase different styles of whisky these days, Springbank were the first. In 1973 they started distilling a heavily peated malt that went on to be known as Longrow. Another range was added in 2005 when the first Hazelburn single malt was announced.

Both Longrow and Hazelburn are named after long closed Campbeltown distilleries. The Longrow distillery closed in 1896, and the Hazelburn distillery in 1925. One of the surviving warehouses from the Longrow distillery is now Springbank’s bottling hall.

The Springbank distillery is the region's largest employer and was the first distillery in Scotland to become a living wage employer.

About That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s Springbank bottling(s)

We released our first batch back in 2013, it was a release of just 2746 bottles, It was very good and was awarded Gold in the Independent Bottlers Challenge that year. Batch 2 followed in shortly afterwards, with a four year gap before Batches 3 to 7 came along in 2017 - all with age statements, either 21 or 25 Year Olds oddly enough. Last year just three batches were released.

The most recent batches released since November 2018 are 10, 12, 12, and 14. You might be wondering where the intermediate release have gone? These batch numbers are reserved for US releases.

Batch 10 Tasting Notes
Nose: Fruit salad sweets and lemon drops with a touch of syrupy ginger.
Taste: A sweet entry followed by a lemon sherbet fizz. There’s more of that ginger too.
Finish: A herbaceous finish with a leafy freshness and juicy green grapes.

Batch 12 Tasting Notes
Nose: Very rich on the nose with treacle, plums and subtle honeysuckle coming through.

Taste: At first a sweet and thick mouthfeel with toast and honey, a prickle of ginger and  eventually a dryness cutting through.

Finish: More of the toast, warming ginger and a touch of lemon peel

Batch 14 Tasting Notes
Nose: Grain sack and tobacco leaf combine with gentle peat and a faint hint of cherry stone

Taste: Full, oily mouthfeel carrying peat, oaky vanilla and tart cherry

Finish: Oiliness continues through the finish, perfectly delivering sweet, warm nuttiness

Batch 16 Tasting Notes
Nose: Rich and complex with oak, cocoa, juicy black cherries and toasted oats.

Taste: Smooth toffee notes to start followed by tropical fruits and warming cinnamon.

Finish: A dry finish with more oaty flavours coming through. There’s also a final hint of burnt rubber.

Boutique-y Dave Takes A Closer Look At 2018

Settle yourself down by the Christmas tree with a sip of something delicious-y and a box of tissues to hand. We’ve asked Boutique-y Dave to look back at 2018 - and there won’t be a dry eye (or glass) in the house by the time you’ve finished reading this.

A Look Back At 2018

As I get older the years seem to speed by ever faster, and 2018 has followed the trend running away with such pace I was almost out of breath by the end of November. But looking back through the year, we have covered an awful lot of ground, in terms of distance travelled, and milestones reached!

It has been a record year for new releases, easily surpassing our 2016 record of 66 new batches for the UK market back in July. Even while writing this summary, the number has been rising and last night I counted 165 releases! It’s not only UK releases that have kept us busy this year though. Special releases have gone out to a number of our distributors around the globe as well.

New Labels

We’ve introduced a huge number of new labels this year, FORTY to be precise, keeping the very talented artist Emily Chappell super busy!

There are 95 ‘established’ malt whisky distilleries in Scotland (the youngest in my list being Kilchoman in 2005) and to date, we have bottled 72 of these 95 (I’ve included the ‘teaspooned malts’ and the secret distilleries in this total).  In 2018 we released our first batches from Tamnavulin, Dalmore, Tamdhu, Glen Ord, Tomatin, Inchgower, Glenlivet, Glencadam, Dufftown, Glendullen, and most recently Balmenach, Teaninich, and the long closed Rosebank!

There are of course many new distilleries that have opened since 2005, and continue to be opened, but I only review these at the end of the year. In 2018 that number has risen to 27, and to date, we’ve managed to bottle one from this list.

We continue to seek interesting whiskies from around the world, and 2018 also saw our first releases from New Zealand, South Africa's Three Ships, Swedish distillers Smögen, Swiss distillers Santis, The Cotswolds distillery from England, a Karuizawa from Japan, and a number of US whiskey makers; from Tennessee Bourbon, the Reservoir Distillery, James E Pepper, Heaven Hill, and Distillery 291.

Out and about

Once again I’ve been to Whisky Festivals up and down the country, meeting some fabulous people and sharing some wonderful whiskies, from Soho down to Brighton - I must have played them all! I’ve picked up whisky glasses from most events over the years, and this had to stop, I simply cannot house any more whisky glasses! You really don’t need to know just how many whisky glasses I have, but it went into three digits sometime ago.

However, I found a solution to my magpie habit during 2018. I can still pick up a festival glass, and take it home at the end of the day. To ease the storage problem, I’ve been taking the glass along with me to the next festival to find a new home.

Spirit of Speyside

In early May I headed up to the Spirit of Speyside. It was both mine and the brand’s first time at this festival although I had visited the are many times before. My first event was a tasting in conjunction with Mike Lord and his Dufftown Whisky Shop team at St James Hall. Wherever possible I like to hold tastings blind, not to catch anybody out, but to simply remove any preconceptions about the whisky we’re tasting. As it was our first time in Speyside I decided that all of the whiskies should be recent/current releases from Speyside distilleries. To reveal each whisky this time, I had our labels printed up on canvas and auctioned them all off at the end of the tasting, raising an impressive sum for The Whisky Shops’ chosen charity.

I also found myself hosting a tasting alongside the ‘Whisky Bard’ himself, Robin Laing, at a gala dinner at the Tannochbrae Guest House in Dufftown. Robin is one of Scotland's premier folk singer-songwriters, and a prolific writer too - one of my favourite books is ‘The Whisky River’ which tells the story of the Speyside Distilleries. I’d chosen an eclectic mix of Boutique-y releases for this dinner, and chef James had matched a whisky with each of the courses. I even cheekily sneaked in an English whisky to finish the evening off!

Fear not - I’m currently making plans for SoS 2019.

Feis Ile

Then at the end of May I headed to Islay for the very first time and held a couple of Boutique-y Whisky tastings aboard the S/V Irene while moored at Port Ellen Harbour.

Port Ellen harbour is a fabulous setting for a whisky tasting, especially when the sun is out! Being aboard a historic yacht added to the atmosphere, although being boarded by a very noisy party from The Flying Dutchman during the first tasting wasn’t in my plans. Fortunately the second tasting later on in the week wasn’t interrupted.

The weather was kind throughout my stay, so kind in fact I think I might have even got a touch of sunstroke after Bruichladdich day despite doing my best to keep out of the sun wherever possible.

I’m certainly looking forward to hosting some similar tastings at next year’s Feis Ile, so keep your eyes peeled!

Worldwide

This year I’ve also spread my wings a little further afield with trips to support our distributors across the world; With Bresser and Timmer in The Netherlands at The Den Haag Whisky Festival, with Mac-Y in Denmark and their Rum and Whisky Festival held in Frederiks, with Hua Yang in Taiwan for Whisky Live Taipei and with Whisk-E in Japan at the recent Tokyo Whisky Festival. I have spent a fair bit of time in South East Asia in my earlier career, but I’d never been to Taiwan and Japan before.

I’d like to say thank you to a few people who have stepped in to help at some of the busier UK shows; to Emily Tedder and Claire Vokins, aka the ‘Dream Team’ for their help during two busy London shows, and to Sorren Krebs (aka @ocdwhisky) who stepped in to fly solo at a couple of festivals for me when I was required elsewhere.

Awards

It’s been another successful year for That Boutique-y Whisky with many of our releases picking up awards from the key award bodies; The Scotch Whisky Masters, The Irish Whiskey Masters, The World Whisky Masters, The International Wine and Spirits Competition, The International Spirits Challenge and most recently were were awarded Independent Bottler of the Year for both American Whiskey and Scottish Highland Whisky by Whisky Magazine.

I changed my career for whisky. Just ten years ago I knew nothing about whisky at all. Then one whisky, brought to me by a work colleague, friend, and whisky enthusiast, changed my world completely. From whisky curious, to whisky blogger, to being awarded an Icon of Whisky award for World Whisky Brand Ambassador of the Year earlier this year was simply mind blowing!

There are so many people within the industry that have supported me along the way, far too many to list here, but you know who you are, and I thank each and everyone of you!

I’m signing off for 2018 and taking the rest of the year off! (you’ll still see me on Twitter I dare say!) so I’m going to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year!

Thank you all for making so many memories this year. I’m looking forward to sharing my passion for Boutique-y Whisky all over again next year!