Springbank 18 Year Old is a single malt whiskey from one of Scotland’s most legendary distilleries. At Springbank, everything is done manually and “in house”, from malting the barley to bottling. The quantities are quite small, but on the other hand the quality is top notch and Springbank has a loyal crowd of whiskey fans, including because of superb bottles like this 18-year-old whiskey bottled at 46% alcohol, with no added color or chill filtration.
Colour: Deep amber.
Scent: Sweet scent of raisin, honey, maple syrup. Behind is the well-known Springbank character with smoke and peat and shipyard.
Tasting notes: Light smoke hovers over chopped hazelnuts and blueberry jam.
Serving suggestion: Should be enjoyed neat.
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.
