Springbank Society Newsletter

September 2013

Greetings Society Members,

I hope you have all had a great Summer and experienced some good weather like we did here in Campbeltown. So hard to believe it is September already….won’t be long until we have to start thinking about what we are asking Santa for this year….!

Anyway, thought it was time to give you a little update on what has been happening here during the last couple of months and give you an insight into what releases we have coming out soon. As promised, this newsletter is SLIGHTLY shorter than my first one…..

DISTILLERY AND SALES TEAM NEWS

We have recently appointed a new regional sales manager, David Allen, who will be taking responsibility for certain markets around the world. David started his new post on Monday 19th September and is already fitting in very well with all staff. This week he is working in the Cadenhead’s Shop in Edinburgh and next week is heading to Amsterdam for a few days so we are making sure he is getting plenty of experience in! From now until Christmas the Sales Office is going to be very quiet as the Sales Team travel all over the world to attend different tastings and shows – keep an eye out for them at events happening near you soon.

Last week was a special week for Campbeltown as the Scottish Cabinet visited. On Wednesday we were lucky enough to welcome the First Minister, Alex Salmond to the distillery where Gavin treated him to a VIP tour before putting him to work filling and signing a cask of Springbank for us! During his visit he also signed some labels which will be used for a special release of Spirit of Freedom next year. Excited staff got the chance to pose with the First Minister and there are some good photos of his visit on the Springbank Distillers Facebook, please check them out if you haven’t already! Mr Salmond was interested to hear about our future plans for the distillery and is said to have enjoyed his time with us. As a special treat, he was presented with a bottle of Springbank 21 year old which he was delighted with…maybe we will gain a new member to the Society soon!!

FRANK MCHARDY RETIRES AS DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION

As you may well know, Frank McHardy has recently retired as Director of Production at Springbank and Glengyle Distilleries after an incredible 50 years in the industry. Frank began his loving relationship with whisky in March 1963 where he was employed at Invergordon Distillery, sweeping the yard and doing odd manual jobs around the place. From there his career has taken him to Tamnavulin, Bruichladdich, Bushmills and, of course, Springbank and Glengyle.

At Springbank, we are delighted and honoured that, in two spells, Frank has spent 26 years with us – more than half his career and we consider ourselves to be very lucky to have had him. During his time in Campbeltown Frank has been a key part of the renaissance at Springbank and, even more significantly, played a major role in the rebuilding and opening of the Mitchell’s Glengyle Distillery back in 2004, designing the distillery itself and helping to source most of the equipment.

We will all miss seeing Frank’s smiling face every day but know that this is certainly not the end of his involvement within the industry and although he has “retired”, Frank will always be in demand to share his knowledge. This Sunday, he will be flying out to Australia to give his advice on plans to establish a new malt distillery in Perth and will also be sharing his thoughts and giving advice on the opening of a small Single Malt distillery in Israel. Next year he will be returning to Springnbank for the Whisky School (please see next heading below for more details) and we have also recently introduced the special ‘Frank McHardy Tour’ into our tour options where you get to spend 4 HOURS in the company of the man himself who will share his 50 years experience with you (and also a fair few drams too!)

WHISKY SCHOOL DATES 2014

Whisky School dates for 2014 have been set and once again we are offering you the chance to come and experience distillery life first hand. Next year we are planning to have 7 one week ‘courses’ of Whisky School, the first week beginning Monday 12th May 2014.

Please see below for the available dates:

TERM 1:Week commencing Monday 12th May – FULLY BOOKED

TERM 2:Week commencing Monday 19th May – FULLY BOOKED

TERM 3:Week commencing Monday 26th May – SPACES AVAILABLE

TERM 4:Week commencing Monday 2nd June – SPACES AVAILABLE

TERM 5:Week commencing Monday 9th June – FULLY BOOKED

TERM 6:Week commencing Monday 16th June – SPACES AVAILABLE

TERM 7:Week commencing Monday 23rd June – SPACES AVAILABLE

Spaces have already started to fill up very quickly so if you have an interest in this then please e-mail Janet at whiskyschool@springbankwhisky.com as soon as possible so you don’t miss out!

As always, our team of experts will be tutoring you through the week, giving you the chance to try out each stage of the process from malting, mashing, distilling, bottling and most importantly – sampling the finished product occasionally!! Although Frank has recently retired, we are delighted that he will be returning as ‘Headmaster’ for the Whisky School season in 2014. Hopefully he won’t have softened his manner too much during his retirement!

CGS4GAMBIA AUCTION BOTTLE

After some exciting last minute bidding for the bottle of Springbank being auctioned off for CGS4GAMIBA, I can announce that the final bid for the bottle was a massive £2,500!! We are delighted with the amount raised for this very worthy cause and the money will be a great help towards the schools trip to Gambia in 2014. Even if you missed out on the full bottle, the Ardshiel Hotel still have some left in theirs so if you are nearby, why not pop in a dram? It is £25.00 a nip with all proceeds going to the CGS4GAMBIA group!

ARDSHIEL IN WHISKY BAR OF THE YEAR BATTLE

I’m sure that if you have been in Campbeltown, you will have visited the Ardshiel Hotel during your time here and will agree that they have a brilliant whisky selection. The hotel has recently been put up for the Whisky Bar of the Year Award by Scottish Field Whisky Challenge. Ten bars have made the finals and it would be fantastic if we could make the Ardshiel the winner of this award. If you would like to vote please go to www.scottishfield.co.uk/votenow or email whisky@scottishfield.co.uk leaving your choice of bar. Voting closes on 4th October and they are currently sitting in 3rd position so need as many votes as possible…let’s crown the Ardshiel the worthy winners!

EXPLORE CAMPBELTOWN LAUNCH

The Explore Campbeltown website is now live!! Just to remind you – Explore Campbeltown is a new marketing initiative founded by Springbank Distillery, the Ardshiel Hotel and Machrihanish Holiday Park. Since February we have been working together with the local businesses of South Kintyre to create a one stop website for Campbeltown with the aim of promoting all the goods and services on offer in this ‘hidden gem’ of Scotland and to try to encourage more people to visit/spend their holidays here. Over 180 businesses have signed up to the website so far and the support from the local community has been overwhelming. Some of the biggest producers in the town such as Glen Scotia Distillery, Kintyre Smokehouse and Mull of Kintyre Cheddar have joined up and agreed to put the website logo on all their produce (as well as all Springbank and Cadenhead’s products of course!) By putting the logo on all of these products we will be reaching different corners of the globe and we hope that awareness of the website and South Kintyre in general will spread worldwide. Campbeltown Courier have also agreed to carry the logo on every issue from this week onwards which will provide us with important local advertising. Please check out the website at www.explorecampbeltown.com and give us your thoughts – all feedback is very welcome!

During the Scottish Cabinets visit, the First Minister showed great enthusiasm for the project and has since made a fantastic offer. Mr Salmond has said that he wants to thank Campbeltown for its hospitality during the two day visit and would like to do something to help support the towns determination to thrive and grow. He has offered to host an ‘Explore Campbeltown’ dinner at Bute House, his official residence in Edinburgh, where all food on the menu will be Campbeltown produce, cooked by a special celebrity chef!! The meal which will celebrate our local produce, will be hosted by Mr Salmond and include specially invited guests to help promote South Kintyre and what we have to offer. As imagined, we are all thrilled at the prospect of this – it is exciting news for Campbeltown and hopefully the website will continue to help bring great opportunities our way!

MULL OF KINTYRE MUSIC FESTIVAL

A couple of weeks ago the town was jam packed with locals and visitors alike to help celebrate the 21st Mull of Kintyre Music Festival. A variety of music events took place in different venues around the town from Thursday right through to Sunday night (Sunday events designed for the ‘real survivors’ – unfortunately I was not included in this, this year!!) Each year on the Saturday morning there is a festival parade through the streets of Campbeltown and this year we decided to enter a Springbank themed float into the mix! As it was the festivals 21st birthday we decided to go with that theme and have a 21st birthday ‘bottle party’. The week leading up to the festival mainly consisted of late nights in the bottling hall, decorating giant labels to stick onto giant whisky bottles (made of wood unfortunately!!) On the day, these bottles were attached to our backs to give the idea of ‘dancing bottles’ and the float was dressed up in 21st birthday banners, balloons and even a big birthday cake. It was a great laugh and definitely worth all the effort we put in! During the winners ceremony, we were placed in 3rd position for the best dressed float and received a £50 cash prize. We have decided to put this money together with money raised from a collection at Frank’s retirement dinner and are donating a total of £246 to the Beatson hospital in Glasgow.

A fantastic festival weekend was had by all and we are already thinking about ideas for next years competition!

UPCOMING RELEASES

In the next couple of months we have two exciting releases coming out. The first is our new version of Longrow Red which has very recently been bottled and is ready for purchase. Bottled at 53.7%, the 11 year old Longrow Red has been matured for 6 years in refill bourbon hogsheads and a further 5 years in Australian Shiraz hogsheads. The price of this is £49.00 per bottle and you will also receive your 10% discount on this – what a bargain! There are only 9000 bottles available for worldwide distribution and it is proving to be just as popular as last years version so please order soon if you don’t want to miss out. The next wood expression to be released will be a Springbank 9 year old Gaja Barolo. This was matured in refill bourbon casks for the first 4 years and the final 5 are in fresh Gaja Barolo casks. This will be available in October so more details on price will be released then. We still have some of the popular Campbeltown Loch 21 year old available for purchase. The price is £66.00 and you will also receive your 10% Society discount on this.

NEXT SOCIETY BOTTLING

The next Society bottling will be released in November…just in time for Christmas! It will of course be the cask which was chosen by a selection of Society Members on the afternoon before the Open Day. In my previous newsletter I told you it was 11 years but I made a slight mistake – it will actually be 12 and has spent all those years in a Fresh Port Hogshead. As it is a hogshead that means we are only going to get 300 bottles from it. To begin with we will have to strictly limit the allocation to 1 per person in order to keep it fair for all members. If we have not sold it all within the first 2 months you may have the chance to purchase another. If you would like to reserve your bottle now then please email me and I will add you to the reserve list. Well, that is all for now folks and look – it was a wee bit shorter than the last one! I also took Janet’s tip and put the new releases at the bottom to make sure you read it all!!

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Slainte,

Mairi

To join the Springbank Society please contact them at society@springbankwhisky.com