Springbank 18 Years Old (46% 2023)

An official Springbank single malt, an 18 year old release and bottled at 46%. Springbank, run by J and A Mitchell since 1828 in Campbeltown, is a family distillery that malts and bottles every drop on site. The family owner also holds Cadenhead's, the oldest independent bottler in Scotland.

This was run through the distillery's part triple distillation, the malt floor malted and gently peated, with the spirit condensed in 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. The slow loss of the angel's share concentrates the oily, complex core over time. 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 46% it is clean and characterful. Dried fruit and a vanilla oak meets a salty, waxy depth with a whisper of peat. A waxy weight and a saline tang give it real body. A warming, oily finish lingers long. This is Springbank's rich, oily, maritime style.