Springbank Private Bottling 15 Years Old 2000

This Springbank, an official release, a 15 year old release from 2000, drawn from cask 134 (part) and bottled at 50.9%. 298 bottles in all. Springbank is a Campbeltown distillery founded in 1828, still owned by the Mitchell family, five generations on. Production is tiny by modern standards, a fraction of a large Speyside distillery.

It was floor malted, lightly peated and distilled two and a half times, and run into cast iron worm tubs. A wine cask gave a fruity, spiced depth to the make. Mid age brings a fuller fruit and a deeper coastal complexity. Coastal warehousing gives the malt its briny, mineral lift. 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. The maritime warehouses by the sea lend the malt its briny, oily depth.

Bottled at a cask strength 50.9%, it is rich. A coastal, waxy spirit with gentle peat meet plum and red berry from the cask. It is deep and complex, the maritime spirit shining through. A long, oily, coastal finish lingers. This is the cult Campbeltown malt from J and A Mitchell.