Springbank Longrow 2006 Cask #Rotation 570

This official Longrow single malt, a 16 year old release from 2006, drawn from cask Rotation 570 and bottled at 48.5%. Springbank is a Campbeltown distillery founded in 1828, still owned by the Mitchell family, five generations on. Production is tiny by modern standards, a fraction of a large Speyside distillery.

It was floor malted, peated hard and double distilled for Longrow, and run into cast iron worm tubs. A wine cask held it, layering berry fruit over the coastal malt. Past a decade the oily spirit deepens, fruit and salt knitting with the oak. Coastal warehousing gives the malt its briny, mineral lift. The distillery has become a place of pilgrimage for whisky enthusiasts. Kintyre's damp, mild climate suits a long and gentle maturation. The old town of Campbeltown once rivalled Speyside as Scotland's whisky heart. Quality and tradition, not volume, have always been the watchwords here.

At its natural 48.5% it is concentrated. A coastal peat smoke with a briny depth meet raisin and a caramelised nuttiness from the cask. It is deep and complex, the maritime spirit shining through. A long, oily, coastal finish lingers. This is a tarry, coastal Campbeltown malt.