What a year 2025 has been. Not just for The English Distillery but for the country and world in general. I am assured it is just a function of age, but I remain convinced the world spins a little faster every year. So much to do and so little time; therefore you might be pleased to know that I have been banned from writing a 4-page missive like some previous years – so short and sweet it will be…

2025 was momentous for us: It has been 20 years since we sat and had a family meeting and decided to build England’s first registered whisky distillery for over a century. It has been 19 years since we started distilling, and most importantly, we had 18 year old whisky to share with you all. 18 year old whisky felt like a milestone had been passed, and to celebrate it, we released three different whiskies. The first was Chapter 18 (the name a nod to our earlier releases); next was an 18 year old Founders’ Private Cellar, and lastly was a bottling of some of the whisky still maturing in Cask 001. All three were delicious, and all three sold out solely thanks to all of you being the most wonderful supporters of the distillery. I was immensely proud of the releases and humbled by your incredibly generous and unwavering support. Thank you all.

2025 also saw us finish Bond 5, which brings the total cask capacity of the distillery to 12,300 casks. Should we ever fill all the space, that is a lot of whisky sleeping, the total will be somewhere in the region of 4 million bottles worth!!  In reality, we will never see all that whisky as the Norfolk Angels are pretty greedy and take a large slurp from every cask each year. The new shed is very smart, though, and is another tick box in the progression of the brand. On a side note, we have another company called Cadus Vaults that offers cask maturation space to other distilleries, and this has been a success over the last few years, now looking after whisky from not only other English distilleries but also from around the world. Did you know that, having been the only English Whisky Distillery at one point, today we have a list of 72 operating, being built or planned in England. Amazing!

Those of you who have visited the distillery this year will have noticed that the distillery shop continues its morphing from a whisky shop to a now delightful lifestyle shop that also happens to have a good selection of whisky and other local booze in it. It is always tough to hand over the reins, but having let Katy (my wife & better half) loose in the last year, it turns out to have been a fab decision, and the shop is a delight to visit, now selling everything from greetings cards to blankets to jigsaws. This, along with the wonderfully run Grain Kitchen, has revitalised the distillery as a destination, and I am pleased to confirm more of you have visited than ever before, which is great. Our conference facilities at the distillery are becoming increasingly popular, apparently because the space is a delight, and as importantly, we are only a minute off the A11, which is pretty handy for those bringing teams together. – Hows that for a sales pitch!

It is normally at this point that I embark on a rant about our incumbent politicians (regardless of party), but I am struggling this year on where to start and where to end. Is there no end to the misery they can inflict on the drinks and hospitality trade (wage rates, NI, business rates & duty being the main concerns); but also on you my customers with attacks on pensions, inheritance etc. The main moan, though, has to be on income tax. Do they really think you and I can’t see a freeze in allowances as another way of increasing income tax? The promise they built their campaign on – broken. Surely they don’t think we are all that stupid.  I shouldn’t moan, the distillery is in a good position, but I can’t help but wonder when we will next see any politicians put the long-term good of the country before the short-term needs of re-election. A 4 – 5 year cycle of economic planning simply doesn’t cut it. We deal in 50-year maturation cycles, and the government should be thinking in similar timescales when making plans. They will never do this, though, as it is not in their interest, or more importantly, it is probably not even on their radar to be planning for another generation, but this is what family businesses do every day. Ho-hum… move on.

2026 – Plenty to look forward to. The team are already planning next year’s whisky-making and bottlings, and there are some lovely releases coming. I also have a big surprise, that if I get my act together, I shall let you all know about in the spring. We are also in the process of buying a new site for some extra maturation space, and for those of you a little further afield, we have had some good talks with new markets around the world – so watch this space.

I do wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you get to share it with family or friends (or both) and that you manage to take just a bit of time to stop, relax and share a giggle or a hug.

On to 2026 – hope to see you then.

Andrew Nelstrop

CHAIRMAN
English Whisky Co. Ltd

Merry Christmas

As the year comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to say a heartfelt thank you for your support throughout 2025. Whether you visited us at the distillery, enjoyed a bottle at home, or shared our spirits with friends and family, we are truly grateful to have you as part of our community.

From all of us here at the Cotswolds Distillery, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a joyful festive season. We hope you’re celebrating today with a dram of Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky, a refreshing Cotswolds Dry G&T, or one of our delicious liqueurs.

Here’s to good company, great spirits, and a wonderful year ahead.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

Warmest wishes,
The Cotswolds Distillery Team

As the year draws to a close and the festive season really begins, we’re taking a moment to say a huge heartfelt thank you to all our Friends, and reflect on the most unphorgettable year yet. It’s safe to say 2025 provided many incredible moments, too many in fact to count. It wasn’t an easy task to round up just a few, but we always remain committed to the craft. Whether you’re celebrating with festive gatherings or enjoying some much-deserved downtime, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year filled with joy, laughter, and of course, a few sips of smoky whisky.

Mark’s Whisky Ramblings 588: Nikka Coffey Grain vs Coffey Malt

Mark Dermul, Belgian whisky blogger, tries a Japanese whisky. Nikka has produced two whiskies with their Coffey Still (imported from Ben Nevis, no less). The Nikka Coffey Grain and Coffey Malt. Mark gladly tastes them head-to-head.

https://youtu.be/JUCxaAZ8bNw

WRAPPING UP 2025 AT SPRINGBANK

As 2025 comes to a close, we’d like to wish all our Society members a very Merry Christmas. It’s also a great time to look back on the year just gone — from what’s been happening at the distilleries, to what the team has been busy working on, and what we’re looking forward to in the new year. Thank you for being part of the journey, and we can’t wait to share more with you as we head into 2026.

AN UPDATE FROM PRODUCTION
– Findlay Ross, Director of Production

As we approach the end of 2025, we reflect on another busy and successful year for the Production side of our business. Huge strides have been made in the construction of our new bottling and dispatch building, and we remain on course to move all operations into this new facility for the start of March 2026.
This has and will continue to be a complex and time consuming project, and we are pleased to be working closely with local contractors, McFadyens, on this to ensure we deliver a purpose-built facility that will not only improve the working environment for our staff, but also allow us to increase our case output in future years, as well as freeing up a variety of buildings around the site for much needed cask warehousing space.

We will continue to bottle our products with the same ethos we have in all areas of production – with people in place of machines whenever it’s possible to do so. This means that all our Springbank, Hazelburn, Longrow, Kilkerran, and Cadenhead’s products will run down the existing lines in the same way they do now but just in a designed environment rather than an evolved one!

Bottling Operations Manager, Lea Watson, has worked tirelessly on this project, working closely with her team and syncing up the multiple and diverse contractors needed to ensure everything has run and will continue to run smoothly – I definitely owe her a drink at the staff night out (and thankfully it’s a free bar!).

Bottling operations will continue to take place in our existing bottling hall until we move, with some staff members even expressing a sentimentality at the thought of leaving the old place for the new, something I’m sure will be quickly forgotten when they aren’t dressed in their thermals in the winter and beachwear in the summer!

Production operations at both Springbank and Glengyle have run to our usual schedule this year, with 34 weeks of production at Springbank between January and mid-September followed up by 12 weeks of production at Glengyle from mid-September to December.

This has allowed us to produce just shy of 260,000 LA at Springbank, and with 2 weeks of production at Glengyle remaining, we are on course to hit around 92,000 LA there.

As with the ‘old school’ nature of how the site operates, there have been the usual ups and downs of broken motors, leaking pumps, and rattling malt turners, etc, to deal with but Production Manager, Gavin McLachlan, supported by Assistant Manager, Robert McGarrie, and Warehousing Manager, Kerry Hastie, have kept on top of things all year and we’ve not had any setbacks that we couldn’t overcome.

Producing all our malt in house for Springbank remains a great source of pride for everyone at the company, and we have once again processed around 800 tonnes of barley from our suppliers at Highland Grain to make that possible. This year, we also processed 39 tonnes worth of local barley grown at two different farms around the Kintyre area; Low Knockrioch (Diablo Barley) and High Ranochan (Laureate Barley).

Finally, after limping on and patching up the patches on top of the patches of our stills for the last year, we have had them refurbished by Foryths. Then at the tail end of last week, they were returned to us and we hope to have them reinstalled very soon.

We look forward to firing the stills up again in the new year and continuing to produce our unique new make spirit in them for generations to come (or at least until I retire).

All our staff are looking forward to a well-earned break over Christmas and New year, and we hope you all have a great festive period too. We look forward to welcoming everyone visiting our distilleries in 2026!

LIMITED RELEASES

In the second half of 2025, we released two sets of limited edition whiskies from our distilleries. The August release featured our brand new core range whisky, the Springbank 5yo 100 PROOF, alongside our annual Springbank 21yo and Kilkerran 16yo.

A further release followed in November and included the Springbank 12yo Cask Strength, Springbank 10yo Local Barley, Springbank 10yo Fino, Hazelburn 10yo, and Kilkerran Heavily Peated Batch 13.

Following into the new year, the upcoming editions of Springbank 18yo, Springbank 30yo, Longrow 100 PROOF, and Kilkerran 8yo Cask Strength (Bourbon) will be released. These whiskies will be available to purchase through the usual retail channels.

COUNTDOWN COLLECTION

The fourth release in our five-part Countdown Collection—created to mark Springbank’s journey toward its 200th anniversary—is scheduled for release in March next year. This expression will be a 29 Year Old Springbank, matured in two Refill Sherry Hogsheads and one Fresh Rum Barrel at 50.8% ABV. As with each edition in the series, this release will be strictly limited to just 500 bottles and available to Springbank fans worldwide. Be sure to follow our social channels for the latest updates on this special release…

As with each Countdown Collection release, a prize draw will be conducted the following year for those who have returned the prize draw stub from their certificate.

PRIZES:
1st Prize – Whisky School (value £2000)
2nd Prize – Eat Sleep Dram, Repeat + 1 guest (value £1900)
3rd Prize – Barley to Bottle + 1 guest (value £500)

For those who purchased a bottle of our 2025 Countdown Collection 30yo Springbank, you have until January 1st 2026 to submit your entry slip to be included in the next prize draw. Please return your entry slip to the following address: Springbank Distillers Ltd, 9 Bolgam Street, Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland, PA28 6HZ

WASHBACK BAR NEWS

Recently, there’s been some exciting new developments to our Washback Bar here at the distillery, with over 80 new whiskies added to the menu. These new additions include archive bottlings, cask samples, and various other limited releases from through the years. We invited the local members of the Springbank Society & friends for a lovely evening to celebrate the launch of our new menu, to enjoy festive nibbles, and taste some exciting upcoming whiskies from our distilleries — a great night was had!

The new menu is now on our website along with opening hours. We’d love to see you here soon!

SOCIETY BOTTLINGS

In September, the second Springbank Society bottling of 2025 was released as a small batch: an eight-year-old Springbank, fully matured in six fresh Madeira hogsheads and bottled at 54.7% ABV in 70cl bottles. We hope this was welcome news for Society members, especially as the previous Madeira-matured Springbank for the Society was released back in 2013. The upcoming Society bottling is scheduled for release early next year. Further details will be announced in due course.

To join the Springbank Society contact them at society@springbank.scot

TASTING PACKS

In June, we released our fourth Springbank & Kilkerran Tasting Packs — filled with samples from the February and June 2025 limited releases. Our Sales Team also hosted an online tasting to walk through each dram and answer your questions live. Missed it? Catch the full replay on our YouTube Channel

In November, we launched our fifth Tasting Pack sets via cadenhead.shop — making it easier for customers to combine orders with other products and help reduce shipping costs. Society members also enjoyed early access to the release before it went on general sale.

Here are all the whiskies included:

LIVE ONLINE TASTING
THURSDAY, 29TH JANUARY FROM 7PM (GMT).

The sales team will again host an online tasting session to discuss each of the whiskies included. Corresponding tasting packs are still available to purchase in our distillery shop and online via the button below. This will be streamed live on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. We hope you can join us!

MALTS FESTIVAL 2025

As part of the 2025 Campbeltown Malts Festival, we were delighted to once again welcome visitors from around the world to our Springbank & Kilkerran Open Days in May. Thank you to everyone who took part and made it a truly fantastic week!

MALTS FESTIVAL 2026…

The 2026 Campbeltown Malts Festival will take place from Monday 18th to Saturday 23rd May.

Springbank Open Day – Thursday, 21st May 2026
Kilkerran Open Day – Friday, 22nd May 2026

Mark your calendars, we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

If you wish to be added to our mailing list for Springbank / Kilkerran / Cadenhead’s festival events, then please email events@springbank.scot and you will be notified when further information is available.

ONLINE SCOTCH WHISKY AWARDS

On November 1st, our team gathered in the Washback Bar to tune in to the 2025 Online Scotch Whisky Awards Ceremony. Watch the livestream here.

We’re thrilled to have picked up three 1st place awards for 2025!

🥇 Best Distillery — Springbank Distillery
🥇 Best Blended Malt — Campbeltown Loch
🥇 Best Scotch Whisky — Springbank 12yo Cask Strength

All three certificates are now proudly on display in the Washback Bar!

EXPLORE CAMPBELTOWN CHRISTMAS MARKET

On Saturday 30th November, we were delighted to host the annual Explore Campbeltown Christmas Market in our Malt Barns from 11am to 4pm, welcoming the people of Campbeltown to enjoy a festive day out with family and friends.

The bottom floor showcased over fifty local businesses and charities, each offering a wonderful variety of gifts, treats, and handmade items. Upstairs, visitors were spoiled for choice with delicious food from a selection of local eateries, as well as a Santa’s Grotto where children could enjoy a magical festive experience.

You might also spot some familiar faces as Santa’s helpers from our own Distillery Shop!

2025 TASTINGS ROUND UP

What a year it’s been! Our Sales Team travelled far and wide to bring our whiskies to you, hosting almost 170 tastings and attending more than 25 whisky festivals across 20 different countries, including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, and South Korea.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us — we loved meeting you and sharing drams together!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

From everyone at J&A Mitchell, thank you for your continued support throughout the year. Whether you’ve been enjoying our whiskies, visiting our distillery, or recommending us to a friend, we truly appreciate it.

And finally, we recently held our annual Christmas Jumper Day — it’s always a highlight of the season!

To join the Springbank Society contact them at society@springbank.scot

www.clickwhiskyauctions.com