Happy Holidays from the Springbank Society – Scotch Whisky News
December Quarterly Newsletter
Are you there Society? It’s me, Nathan.
Some of you haven’t heard from me in a couple of months, I hope you are all still well. Things have been very busy here at Springbank Towers, and for me specifically (I’ll address that in the next section of this newsletter) so it hasn’t always been easy to keep in touch. Therefore, I thought it best to send out the next edition of our “regular” Quarterlies before the Springbank office closes for the holidays; from Wednesday 21st December 2016 until early next year.
Nevertheless, please be assured that Springbank (and Glengyle) continues to march forward as steadily as we always have. The nights get darker, the wind gets colder and the days get shorter but we are a hardy sort in Campbeltown so we keep on keepin’ on, dreaming of the warmth of spring.
Actually, once we get to spring time, it won’t be long until a certain festival…
More on that next time. First though, let us discuss these pesky Society bottles.
Society bottle update
I can happily say that, after initial delays caused by waiting on the lottery draw to happen, there has been substantial progress in getting people’s society bottles out to them and many of you have your bottles or, at the very least, have confirmed arrangements regarding how you are going to obtain them in the future. If this sounds like you (and it should sound familiar to many of you) and you have your bottles, feel free to skip forward to the next section of this email.
Everyone else, this section is for you. If you emailed me at the start of November (especially if you contacted me on the 1st or 2nd of November) and have not heard back from me, please send me an email at society@springbankwhisky.com and I shall get back to you as soon as possible in the new year.
Also, if you have received confirmation from me that you have secured a bottle/bottles and would like it delivered to your personal address, please get in touch at the same address and I shall do my best to get your order to you as soon as possible.
Lastly, if you are having your order sent to one of the European Cadenhead shops (Cologne, Berlin, Odense or Salzburg) I shall be in touch with you as soon as I can to let you know when you can pick up your order.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it; to everyone that does not then I hope you enjoy the holiday period in whatever way you wish. With a dram or two, perhaps?
Have a happy new year and I look forward to speaking to you all in January. I will not be in the office during the dates I mentioned above (21st Dec – early January) so if you email me please do not be alarmed if you do not receive a reply during this time. I will reply to you as soon as possible upon my return.
Year in Review
What a year 2016 has been and while it is nearly gone, it will never be forgotten. Obviously, the highlight of the year happened in April as that is when I joined the company…
No? Ok then, lets have a look at some of the more memorable events, facts and figures of 2016.
Almost 400 new members joined the Society; welcome aboard all of you. I’m sure you’ll love being a part of the Springbank family, and Mairi Paterson, who wrote you all a Christmas message last year, has told me that the number of people going on distillery tours has gone up by 16% (excluding December figures). We are continuously delighted that people enjoy coming to our distillery and our town. Thank you to everyone that came in 2016 and if you didn’t make to Campbeltown this year, I hope we see you in 2017.
Away back in January we had the first Local Barley general release since 2001. I wasn’t working at Springbank then but I am told that went down rather well, especially amongst Society members. Should we wait another 15 years before releasing the next one?
We celebrated the 12th birthday of Kilkerran in March, followed by the release of Kilkerran 12yo in August which was a proud moment for so many people at J&A Mitchell.
We featured in a BBC documentary entitled “Scotch! The Story of Whisky” that I am sure you can still find it online if you look. The presenter, David Hayman, came to Campbeltown to film during the Malts Festival. The Campbeltown Malts Festival, and our Springbank Open Day within, continues to grow and is now an immovable centrepiece of the Springbank year. I met many of you for the first time at this year’s festival and I am sure I will meet so many more of you in May 2017.
Over the course of the year our sales team, Manager Ranald Watson along with David Allen, Grant Macpherson, Melanie Stanger and Fraser Milloy, visited 21 countries (challenge: name them all), attended 61 whisky shows/festivals and conducted approximately 100 tastings; including one Grant did on a nuclear submarine.
Melanie’s year could almost be split in half: the first half of the year was all about Kilkerran before her attention returned to Springbank.
And David did a bungee jump; he wanted me to mention that.
Upcoming Trips and Events
This section is dedicated to listing the upcoming events our sales team shall be attending in the early part of next year. When I did this for the last quarterly, the list went on for about a thousand pages but thankfully Jan-Mar is a much quieter period of time in the whisky world.
13th-14th January – Grant is attending the Harrow Whisky Festival
14th January – David is in Tromso, Norway for the Arctic Whisky Festival.
18th January – Melanie starts a tour of Canada, beginning at Edmonton Whisky Fair.
19th January – Then she is off to Calgary for their Whisky Fair
21st January – Melanie attends the Victoria Whisky Festival
23rd January – And to finish, Melanie is at the Whiskey Classique in Vancouver
16th-18th February – This time it is Sweden for our Dave; he is at the Viking Cinderella Whisky Fair.
10th-11th March – Whisky Lounge Newcastle takes place and Grant will be there
11th March – Melanie will be at Whisky + Friends in Warsaw, Poland
17th-18th March – Grant is on the road again; he is at the Midlands Whisky Festival for Nickolls and Perks
31st March – 1st April: Melanie is our representative at Whiskyschiff Luzern
And finally, I wanted to remind everyone that has not signed up to the Society section of our website that they are missing out if they don’t!
As well as keeping the general news section of our website up to date with news from the distillery and new releases as they happen, we also have a dedicated news section for our special Society Members. In this section you will be able to keep up to date with the latest special Society bottlings and be the first to find out news. Of course, when we have very important information to give you such as a new Society bottling or any new release from the distillery then this information will continue to be emailed but other day-to-day news will be added to the website.
I would urge all members to register for an online account to keep up to date with the news as it happens. To create an account please follow these instructions:
- Go to www.springbankwhisky.com
- Click on the ‘Society’ tab along the top of the page
- Click on the ‘Confirm Log-In Details’ orange tab
- Please enter all the information that is required
- Once you have submitted this information, a notification should be displayed to tell you that an email has been sent to your given email address and it will ask you to verify this email address
- Please open this email in your email account and click the link to verify your email
- Once you have done this, I will receive a notification informing me that a new member has signed up to the website so I will then activate your account for online use
- When your account has been activated, you will be able to read all news stories in the Society section. To log in, just click the ‘Log-In to Society News’ tab where you will just be asked to enter your username and password for access.
And so, we have reached the end of both this newsletter and this year. I have attached the opening times for the Campbeltown Cadenhead Shop to the bottom of this email for your attention.
Campbeltown Cadenhead Shop Contact Details:
email: shop@wmcadenhead.com
phone: +44 (0)1586 551710
I will be back in touch with you all in January when everything begins again.
But not everything will be the same.
#Change Jan2017
Slainte
Nathan
For the Springbank Society
For information on how to joint he Society please contact Nathan via society@springbankwhisky.com
