Festive Greetings! We trust you are all well and easing yourself into the holiday season.  Or if you’re like the majority of us here at Springbank you’re kicking yourself for leaving everything to last minute, trying to find retailers who will still deliver before Christmas (not many to the bottom of the Mull of Kintyre) and trying to find enough places around the house to hide your Springbank collection before the Father in Law arrives.

As we will shortly close the distillery and office for Christmas we thought we would send you a final newsletter for 2017 to recap on a very busy year and preview the start of 2018.

2017 has undoubtedly been one of the distillery’s busiest, with major renovations works to our famous malt barns, installation of a new bottling line, lots of new production staff, our busiest Malts Festival ever and 5 newborn babies just the tip of the iceberg!

The sales team have been active as usual travelling across the globe to participate in 49 whisky shows and conduct almost 100 tastings. No bungee jumping or tastings aboard Nuclear Submarines this year although Ronan claims to have scaled 2,128m to the top of Mont Pilatus in Luzern for an epic Springbank selfie after Whisky Schiffs…(He thinks we don’t know there is a cable car all the way to the top) and Melanie enjoyed a whisky evening at the UK’s Ambassador residence in Budapest.  She was disappointed that no Ferrero Rocher was offered.

The Society continues to grow with an additional 548 new members this year while more and more fans make the pilgrimage to visit us in Campbeltown with visitor numbers increasing 17% from 2016.

In a parody of the Twelve Days of Christmas we can festively summarise our year as;

12 new staff,

11 weeks renovations,

10 year old local barley,

 9 thousand bottles,

 8 weeks whisky school,

 7 missed flights,

 6 hours peat smoke,

 5 newborn babies,

 4 ton mashes,

 3 new flagpoles,

 2 weeks Christmas holidays,

 and 1 new bottling line!

2018 is set to be just as busy with more renovations, full time malting, the Campbeltown Malts Festival (23rd-25th May) and who knows how many newborns!

New Releases

What better way to beat the January blues than tucking into some of our new releases.  February will be a busy month with three Springbank heavy-weights hitting the shelves;

Springbank 12yo cask strength 56.3%

The latest 12yo cask strength follows the normal maturation recipe of 70% sherry and 30% bourbon and will be bottled at 56.3% ABV.

Springbank 25yo 

The 5th annual release of Springbank 25yo will be available worldwide in limited quantities.  This version departs from recent editions of the 25yo where maturation combined bourbon and sherry casks into a final port pipe vatting, whereas this edition has been matured exclusively in refill sherry casks, characterising the whisky with the soft rich fruits associated with classic Springbanks.

Longrow Red 11yo 55.9%

This Longrow Red Cabernet Franc from De Toren Private Cellar in Stellenbosch, South Africa is the follow up from the previous Malbec release from the same winery. It will be bottled at cask strength having spent an initial nine years in bourbon barrels before a final two in Cabernet Franc barriques.

The Sales team will be straight into a busy travel schedule. Here’s where you can catch up with them in the coming months;

Sales Team Events

January 

12-13th      Harrow Whisky Festival, The Grim’s Dyke Hotel, London (Grant)

13th        Arctic Whisky Festival,Tromsø, Norway (Ronan)

15-22nd    Canada Tasting Tour (Melanie)

        15-16th  Edmonton retailer visits and tastings

        17th Edmonton Whisky Festival         www.edmontonwhiskyfestival.ca

        18th Calgary Whisky Festival         www.calgarywhiskyfestival.ca

        20th Victoria Whisky Festival         www.victoriawhiskyfestival.com

        21 – 22nd Vancouver Whisky Classique         www.whiskyclassique.com

19-20th    Whisky Weekend Amsterdam, Holland. www.whiskyamsterdam.nl

        (Kilkerran only event) David

February 

26th Feb – 2nd Mar:  Australia Tasting Tour. Ranald will be representing Springbank down under in partnership with       Cadenhead’s who will also be touring. David will also be in the country on these dates for a       Kilkerran tasting tour.

March

2-4th         DramFest, Christchurch, New Zealand. www.dramfest.co.nz

        (Ranald & David)

5-12th        New Zealand tasting tour. (Joint Springbank, Kilkerran & Cadenhead tour with David, Ranald and Cameron)

8-10th         Whiskyschiffs Luzern    www.whiskyschiff-luzern.ch

10th        Fife Whisky Festival      www.fifewhiskyfestival.com (Grant)

16-17th    Midlands Whisky Festival  www.whiskyfest.co.uk (Grant)

19-23rd    Norwegian Tasting Tour. Dates and locations tbc (Ronan)

That’s all from us for 2017, our office is closed from 1pm Wednesday 20th December 2017 until 4th January 2018.  The Campbeltown Cadenhead’s shop will be working on reduced opening hours and tours;

Wednesday 20th December     9am – 1pm     (10am & 11.30am tour only)

Thursday 21st December         9am – 5pm

Friday 22nd December         9am – 5pm

Saturday 23rd December         9am – 5pm

Sunday 24th December         12pm – 4pm   (No tours)

Monday 25th December         Closed

Tuesday 26th December         Closed

Wednesday 27th December     Closed

Thursday 28th December         11am – 4pm (1.30pm tour only)

Friday 29th December         11am – 4pm (1.30pm tour only)

Saturday 30th December         11am – 4pm (1.30pm tour only)

Sunday 31st December         Closed until Thursday 4th January 2018

From everyone at Springbank, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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