Springbank Longrow 17 Years Old (50.5%)

This Longrow, an official release matured to 17 year old and bottled at 50.5%. Just 1025 bottles were filled. The Springbank distillery, in Mitchell family hands since 1828, is prized for its rich, oily, hand made spirit. The distillery champions the old, slow, labour intensive way of making whisky.

The make was run twice through the stills from heavily peated malt, and condensed in traditional worm tubs. A Rum cask shaped it, lending brown sugar and a tropical lift. Mid age brings a fuller fruit and a deeper coastal complexity. Long maturation suits the heavy, characterful make, the cask knitting slowly with the spirit. Demand far outstrips the small output, and bottles are keenly chased. Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn each show a different face of the one distillery. The open larch washbacks are a rare survival in modern Scotch. The distillery has become a place of pilgrimage for whisky enthusiasts.

At a full 50.5% it is bold and oily. Smoke, tar and an oily maritime depth meet brown sugar, banana and a tropical lift from the cask. Beneath it run oily fruit, salt and a coastal depth. It closes long, oily and salty. This is a tarry, coastal Campbeltown malt.