Springbank Private Bottling 13 Years Old 1979

This Springbank, an official release, a 13 year old release from 1979, drawn from cask 469 and bottled at 56.8%. The Springbank distillery, in Mitchell family hands since 1828, is still owned by the Mitchell family, five generations on. Uniquely in Scotch, every drop is floor malted, distilled, matured and bottled on the one site.

The make was distilled two and a half times from lightly peated, floor malted malt, and run into cast iron worm tubs. Maturation in a sherry cask laid dried fruit over the maritime 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 old town of Campbeltown once rivalled Speyside as Scotland's whisky heart. Quality and tradition, not volume, have always been the watchwords here. The spirit is filled to cask and matured within the distillery walls.

At a full 56.8% it is bold and oily. A coastal, waxy spirit with gentle peat meet dried fruit and a walnut richness from the cask. It is deep and complex, the maritime spirit shining through. It closes long, oily and salty. This is the cult Campbeltown malt from J and A Mitchell.