Springbank 10 Year Old is a classic in the whiskey world. The small distillery in Campbeltown has long since ingratiated itself with whiskey geeks, partly because at Springbank everything is done by hand and “in house”, from malting to bottling. The whiskey is bottled at 46%, without color addition or chill filtration. Perhaps the best “standard” 10-year bottling in the world?
Colour: Light amber
Aroma: The aroma hides many nuances, of heather honey, ripe pears, barn (warm hay and sweaty cattle), pepper and oyster shells. Wonderful!
Tasting notes: Peaches in syrup, salty umami notes, light peat smoke and soot.
Serving suggestion: Should be enjoyed neat. It is a whiskey which develops and opens beautifully after some time in an open bottle.
At Springbank, 3 distinct types of whiskey are produced, which differ on a number of parameters. The classic Springbank has a light peat smoke. The smoke level is indicated (somewhat imprecisely) with a measurement of phenol in the finished malted barley and is approximately 10-15 “parts per million” (the malt is dried for 6 hours with peat smoke and 30 hours with hot air). Springbank is also distilled 2.5 times. “Longrow” – a strongly smoked variant was first made in 1973. Here the smoke is up to 50-55 ppm, the malt is dried for 48 hours with peat smoke, and it is distilled twice. The newest variant, Hazelburn, saw the light of day in 1997 when, for the first time, they tried completely unsmoked and triple-distilled whiskey. Of the approximately 175,000 liters the small Campbeltown distillery produces per year, 80% is Springbank, approximately 10% Longrow and 10% Hazelburn.
Regardless of which variant you’re after, Springbank is worth getting to know. It is the favorite distillery of many whiskey geeks and for good reason! As the only distillery in Scotland, they malt all the barley they need themselves. Color is never added and the whiskey is not chill-filtered.
