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SPRINGBANK DISTILLERY
The most completely traditional of all whisky distilleries, protector and protagonist of the Campbeltown style, is also among the most forward-looking. Reviving an old Campbeltown name, the distillery will in 2006 bottle a whisky called Hazelburn, distilled in 1997. This follows another such revival, the release in 1985 of the acclaimed Longrow, distilled in 1973-74. Springbank itself appears in a wide variety of vintages, ages, and woods, the most famous of which is the 1966, distilled from locally grown barley kilned over local peat. After a gap of 33 years, malting barley is again being grown by a local farm – especially for Springbank. The distillery has its own maltings, which after being silent for more than a decade was restored seven or eight years ago, though using Islay peat. It is a floor maltings and meets all of the distillery’s needs. That combination of circumstances is unique to this distillery. Springbank is also unusual in being able to triple distil. Campbeltown, on the narrow peninsula called the Mull of Kintyre, was more accessible, and commercially important, in the days of steamship travel between neighboring islands, and actually became more remote with the growth of rail and road transport. “The mist rolls in from the sea,” sang Paul McCartney, and it really does, no doubt influencing the flavor of the older whiskies maturing in the earth-floored warehouses numbers one and three at Springbank. Over the centuries, the town has had about 30 distilleries, some of which ruined their reputations by producing hurried whiskies for the US during Prohibition, and closed soon afterwards. After a period of illegal whisky making, a family called Mitchell began the Riechlachan distillery in 1825. The site of their illicit still became Springbank, possibly in 1828, and the company is still owned by this reticent family. The distillery was rebuilt in the 1880s, and is little changed. As an isolated independent with its own under-utilized bottling line, in 1969 Springbank bought the century-old firm of Cadenhead. This company, formerly based in Aberdeen, has always been an independent bottler. Both Springbank and Cadenhead use the same bottling line, in Campbeltown, but they are run as separate enterprises. Neither company chill-filters its whiskies, or adds caramel to balance the color. Being long-established enterprises, they have a considerable inventory of casks. Some Springbank once even found its way into a couple of casks of acacia wood. As awareness of woods has increased in the industry, Springbank has mainly acquired Bourbon barrels, to highlight the character of the whisky itself, but most bottlings are vatted to give a touch of color and sweetness from sherry wood. If a sherry cask proves particularly good, it may be bottled straight. Without a hierarchy of marketing policy makers, the three or four people who run the business on a daily basis taste regularly and bottle what they think is good and ready.
SPRINGBANK HOUSE STYLE Back to Campbeltown Distilleries Single Malt Scotch, Irish Whiskey, Bourbon, Rye Whisky, Canadian Whisky, Cognac and Tequila all available for purchase online to Michigan residents only |
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