Longrow 1996

A distillery bottling of Longrow, a 10 year old release from 1996 and bottled at 46%. Springbank is a Campbeltown distillery founded in 1828, a byword for traditional Scotch whisky making. The distillery sits in the heart of Campbeltown, near the head of its sea loch.

It was drawn off two distillations of heavily peated malt, with the spirit condensed in worm tubs. It rested in ex-Bourbon oak, the wood adding a light honeyed sweetness. At this age the spirit is vivid and oily, the fruit and salt to the fore. The hands on, small scale working shapes a spirit of real individuality. 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. Few distilleries keep so much of the old craft alive under one roof. Campbeltown was once the whisky capital of the world, with more than thirty distilleries at its peak.

Reduced to 46%, it is mellow. A coastal peat smoke with a briny depth ride on a vanilla and toffee sweetness. A waxy weight and a saline tang give it real body. The finish is long, waxy and briny. This is Longrow, the heavily peated Campbeltown malt.