Springbank Longrow 2004

A distillery bottling of Longrow, aged 15 year old from 2004 and bottled at 52.4%. The outturn was 911 bottles. Springbank, distilling since 1828 in Campbeltown, is a byword for traditional Scotch whisky making. The whole process, malting included, is carried out by hand on the one site.

This was distilled twice from barley floor malted and peated hard, and slowly worm tub cooled. A Rum cask shaped it, lending brown sugar and a tropical lift. By this age the maritime weight rounds into a richer, fuller malt. The hands on, small scale working shapes a spirit of real individuality. 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. Today just three distilleries survive in the old Kintyre whisky town.

Bottled at a cask strength 52.4%, it is rich. Heavy smoke over brine and wax ride on brown sugar and a rum sweetness. It is rich and layered, the fruit and salt well matched. A warming, oily finish lingers long. This is Longrow, the heavily peated Campbeltown malt.