Springbank Society Quarterly Newsletter – Autumn 2018
To the members of the Springbank Society,
Good news! We have survived the heatwave, the residents of Campbeltown will be talking about the summer of 2018 for generations to come. In fact, many of you experienced the wonderful weather when you visited us in May for the Campbeltown Malts Festival. Speaking of which, we have a quick recap of the event later in this note.
Now that the sun has disappeared back behind the clouds we have stopped sunbathing and returned to work – so it seemed like the perfect time to send out a Quarterly Newsletter to Society members to let you all know what we have been up to over the last few months (and to tell you about what is to come in the very near future).
Included in this email, in addition to the aforementioned Festival recap, we have a section introducing the new distillery shop (recent visitors will have seen it in action) and brief details about upcoming distillery releases – more details will be released soon enough.
Also, we have an extensive list of upcoming tastings and events that our Sales Team are involved in, so check that out if you are interested in sharing a dram or two (or three or four…) with any of the team. We also have a social media recap, detailing where you can find us online and a couple of internet highlights from recent times.
Hope you enjoy it!
Campbeltown Malts Festival 2018
This is the first Society Quarterly Newsletter since the Campbeltown Malts Festival so we wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who joined us for the celebration. We were absolutely delighted with how the week went and we hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as we did.
We started with the Society tasting, where those in attendance chose the next Society bottle – Springbank 15yo Fresh Port. They also wrote the tasting notes, although… it turns out that allowing 100 people to write tasting notes results in a strange combination of tastes.
Release date to be announced soon.
Thank you to everyone who joined us in the Malt Barns for the distillery dinner which was, once again, the fruits of the labour of Donald Brown. There were also 3 other whisky dinners taking place at the same time throughout Campbeltown with many Springbank and Kilkerran fans embracing the dinner and drink offered at Food For Thought, the Ardshiel Hotel and The Craigard House Hotel.
The Springbank Open Day on Thursday 24th May was the usual mixture of whisky and organised chaos. The sun baked the town in heat so the distillery was crowded with both visitors and locals. We put on a large number of tastings throughout the day, hosted by our dedicated Sales and Distillery Teams. We hope every single visitor enjoyed these tastings, whether you attended the first tasting of the day, Getting to Know Longrow and Hazelburn, the final Springbank Warehouse tasting in the evening or anything in between.
On the Friday we had a day dedicated to Kilkerran (and Wm Cadenhead’s). Once again we had a range of tastings including the Kilkerran Masterclass and the Kilkerran Cocktail Tasting which were both well attended. Going forward we aim to make the Kilkerran Open Day as celebrated as its Springbank counterpart and your participation and enjoyment on the final day of the festival shows us that you all want the same thing.
It would be remiss of us not to mention, as we are sure you all noticed, the hard work carried out by all distillery, bottling hall and office staff throughout the festival. Their willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty is what really made the festival the success it was.
The dates for next year’s festival are – Tuesday 21st – Friday 24th May 2019
Slainte
New Distillery Shop
We have opened a new shop based at Springbank Distillery.
Those who attended the Campbeltown Malts Festival were among the first to experience the new Springbank Distillery shop recently opened on site to enhance the visiting experience.
This shop stocks the Springbank core range as well as distillery merchandise, gifts, souvenirs and Cadenhead products too.
The shop also serves as the hub for distillery tours as it is the starting and finishing point for tours as well as the place to contact should you have any enquiries regarding visits, tours or tastings.
If you are thinking of booking a tour, please use the details below:
E: tours@springbank.scot
T: +44 (0)1586 555468
W: http://springbank.scot/tours/
Upcoming Releases
We are pleased to say that there will soon be two new distillery releases available. These special, limited releases are:
- Longrow 14yo 57.8% Sherrywood
You will all receive a Newsflash email to announce the launch date very soon so you will all have a chance to get your hands on a bottle or two. Also included in this Newsflash will be a request for you all not to post any product details on social media as this counteracts the effect of members getting to know about launches in advance.
Events: Where can you find our Sales Team over the next 3 months?
Over the next 3 months our dedicated and hard working Sales Team will be travelling the globe spreading the word of Springbank and share a few drams with you all. Below is a list of dates, places and events detailing what our sales team will be up to in the near future.
August:
10th-12th: Grant Macpherson and Ronan Currie will be representing Springbank (and Kilkerran) at the Edinburgh Whisky Fringe. Join our boys in Scotland’s capital.
11th-25th: Sales Manager David Allen will be on USA Sales Tour. Consisting primarily of trade visits, he will be making visits to LA, San Francisco, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
18th: Grant Macpherson will represent Springbank and Kilkerran at the Falkirk Whisky Social on 18th August 2018. Grant will be on hand to serve you drams from our wide range of whiskies – see you there!
September:
1st: Grant is in Oban for an in-store pouring at The Oban Whisky and Fine Wines Shop – everyone is welcome to join him and have a few drams on the first day of September.
7th-8th: Ronan Currie will be getting back on the road again because he will be representing us at Whisky Herbst Berlin. Join Ronan at the show on 7th and 8th September and he may possibly (definitely) share some Springbank, Longrow, Hazelburn and Kilkerran with you. Visit them on Facebook.
10th-14th: David Allen will be in Belgium for a Sales Tour. Visits to Belgium are always busy and action packed whenever we head over there and we are sure this time will be no different. No doubt David will be happy to share a dram with any Springbank fan he meets on his travels.
15th: Grant Macpherson will be serving drams at the Scotch Whisky Festival in Kirkcaldy.
22nd: Grant Macpherson nevers seems to spend a weekend at home – we’ve sent him away again, this time he’s spending the weekend in the wonderful city of Liverpool. Make sure you catch Grant at the Liverpool Whisky Festival – we promise he will be happy to serve you all quality drams. Visit the Whisky Lounge on Facebook.
22nd-24th: David Allen will be in Italy for the hotly anticipated Whisky Revolution Festival. He will be serving drams out to guests and he will also be hosting a tasting while he is in town. Check out the Whisky Revolution Facebook Page.
24th-28th: Ronan Currie will be going on a tasting tour in Finland. Details TBC.
29th: Ranald Watson, Grant Macpherson and Donald Brown are down in London for the Whisky Exchange Whisky Show. It’s one of our favourite events of the year and we cannot wait to see you there.
October:
1st: Two members of the Springbank Sales Team will be in Paris for Salon Dugas. Please note: this is a trade show and is not open to the public. However, no doubt we will see a few Society members during the day.
1st-5th: David Allen embarks on a sales tour of Taiwan for Springbank and Kilkerran. One of David’s favourite places to visit, he can’t wait to meet fans of our whisky in Taiwan.
8th-10th: Ranald Watson is attending the International Bar and Beverage Trade show at Bar Convent in Berlin. Please visit the website here for full details.
8th-14th: Ronan Currie will be touring Japan for a week on behalf of both Springbank and Kilkerran. The tour will consist of a number of trade visits but, although there will be no official public events included on this trip, we are sure Ronan will end up sharing a few drams with some Springbank (and Kilkerran) fans along the way.
20th: Grant Macpherson is back on the road as he heads to Bakewell for Wee Dram Fest 2018 in Bakewell Town Hall. Join Grant in Derbyshire for this regular event on the Springbank calendar.
29th – 3rd November: Ranald Watson is travelling to Alberta, Canada for Willow Park, Whisky in the Warehouse. Join Ranald in Calgary – visit the Willow Park website here.
Events taking place further in the future will be included in the next Quarterly Newsletter and, please remember, the Events Section of the Springbank Website is updated whenever we have new information to share with you all.
Springbank Website – Events Page
Social Media
You can follow Springbank on Social Media:
Facebook – Official Springbank Whisky
Twitter – @Springbank1828
Instagram – springbank1828
You can also follow our Sister Distillery, Mitchell’s Glengyle, on Facebook too:
Facebook (Mitchell’s Glengyle): Kilkerran Single Malt
Information and announcements regarding Kilkerran will also be made through the Springbank channels so you never miss a thing.
If you visit the Springbank Website now you can find a staff interview with Catherine McDougall. This is the most recent edition of our staff interview series Catherine talks about the history of the bottling hall, her time working at Springbank and how things have changed over the years.
Staff Interview: Catherine Mcdougall
And lastly, filmmaker Jeff Bradford visited Springbank recently and made a short film about his time here – click here to go to Youtube and watch the video.
Thanks for reading the Springbank Society Quarterly Newsletter of Autumn 2018.
As usual, if you have any questions or queries you can contact us via email at the usual address – society@springbank.scot
But don’t worry, you’ll be hearing from us again very soon!
Slainte
Springbank Society
Please contact the Society at society@springbank.scot to join.
The Springbank Team
Springbank Distillers
