Springbank 21 Years Old (46% 2021)

This Springbank, an official release, a 21 year old Campbeltown malt and bottled at 46%. 3600 bottles in all. The Springbank distillery, in Mitchell family hands since 1828, is still owned by the Mitchell family, five generations on. Production is tiny by modern standards, a fraction of a large Speyside distillery.

The make was distilled two and a half times from lightly peated, floor malted malt, and run into cast iron worm tubs. A sherry butt held it, the wood lending raisin and walnut. Past twenty years the spirit turns waxy and profound while keeping its character. Coastal warehousing gives the malt its briny, mineral lift. 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 soft, oily and coastal. A coastal, waxy spirit with gentle peat meet dried fruit and a vanilla oak 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.