Whisky is liquid courage. Many people - mostly men - have performed
acts of inspired bravery (and foolishness) whilst under the influence of
'the water of life'. And while the cheaper blends and bourbons usually
affect the more primitive parts of the brain (truncus cerebri), it seems
single malts often appeal to the higher brain functions in the cerebrum.

So, while the symptoms of low budget alcohol abuse often include
primitive behavior like shouting and brawling, those of us that prefer to
abuse our alcohol in style find ourselves inspired to start writing books,
composing music or plan a voyage to Scotland where the whisky was
made. Travellers that have the time and means to stay for a few days
can visit all the main whisky producing regions and one of its distilleries.

Many distilleries welcome visitors with open arms, but when some of the maniacs visited Springbank in 2005 they didn't seem very pleased to see us - or the other visitors for that matter. So, for me the best thing of the trip was the night I spent in the same hotel that Alfred Barnard stayed in when he visited the area over a century ago.

However, from a traveller's perspective, visiting the Campbeltown area is a small nightmare.
One has to make a long trek to the Southern tip of the Kintyre peninsula on the Western coast of Scotland to reach Springbank - or the nearby Glen Scotia distillery. Except for the distilleries, there's not much happening in Campbeltown. And even for the people that want to 'get away from it all' for a few days, Springbank is a fairly poor destination. It's one of the few distilleries that isn't surrounded by the lush Scottish countryside - located in the middle of a busy town.

This attitude came back to haunt the Campbeltown distillers when Western economies were hit by
an international recession after World War I and the prohibition in the USA brought (legal) exports
to the America's to a virtual standstill. One of the first victims was the Glengyle distillery, built circa
1873 by William Mitchell after a fight with his brother John at Springbank. The distillery closed down
again in 1825 - and many other Campbeltown distilleries followed. The economical downturn proved
to have disastrous consequences for the 'volume' whisky distilleries in Campbeltown. The owner of
the Glen Scotia distillery became so depressed that he drowned himself in the artificial lake that was
constructed as the distillery's water supply. Some people say his ghost still haunts the buildings...
 
Unlike its previous owner, the Glen Scotia distillery has managed to survive to this day. For many
years it was the only remaining Campbeltown distillery, besides their neighbours at Springbank.

Barnard's Campbeltown was a very different town from today's, though.
During the glory days of the town and the tip of the Kintyre peninsula, more
that thirty distilleries were active in the area. Campbeltown was also known
as 'The Whisky Capital of the World'. However, most of the distilleries were
focused on quantity rather than quality because they were not able to keep
up with the demand for their malt whiskies (especially from the US) anyway.
So there was no incentive to try and improve the Campbeltown whiskies...

1) Springbank distillery was built in 1828 by two brothers, Archibald and Hugh Mitchell. Rumour has it that their father had already been running an illegal distillery at the same location for years. The Springbank distillery is still owned by the Mitchell family.

2) Frank McHardy has been working at the distillery for many years; Helen Arthur's guide from the 1990's already lists him as distillery manager and he was still involved with Springbank when it (temporarily) closed down in 2008.

3) More trivia to follow...
 

Here are my notes on some 'core range' OB's, followed by a selection of my personal favourits.

Springbank NAS 'House & Tree Label' (46%, OB, Bottled mid 1990's)
Nose: Some antiquity. Organics. Smoke. Meaty. I'm not a real Springbak fan but this is lovely.
Taste: Sherried. mallow. Sweet. Fruity, then salty. What a great mouth feel! As good as the 21yo.
Score: 90 points - now here's a Springbank I would like to have in my reserve stock...

Springbank 10yo (46%, OB, 00/164, bottled 2000)
Nose: The start is spirity and a little oily. Some citrus - more light fruits later on.
A barely detectable hint of bonfire smoke, growing stronger. Really opens up with some breathing.
A splash of water kills it, though. I have to admit that this keeps it out of the 80's as far as I'm concerned.
Taste: Smooth, creamy start. Sweet and malty. Good burn. A little gritty in the finish. A good standard malt.
Nothing more though. Diluted to about 40% it seems much more winey in the finish, leaving a sour aftertaste.
Score: 79 points - it scored 80 points at an earlier tasting but I just can't justify that position.

Springbank 12yo 100 Proof (50%, OB, Bottled +/- 1995, 'Double Dark', USA)
Nose: Loads of heavy fruits and other sherried notes. Raisins and old wood. Furnuture polish. Ant acid.
The bouquet keeps developing as well. Not a very broad spectrum, but incredibly complex. For sherry freaks.
After circa fifteen minutes some organics joined the party and I was ready to go for a score around 95 points.
Taste: Heavy wood, but still smooth. Lovely transformed fruits. Tannins too. Many cognac qualities.
But as great as it was, it pulled down the overall score by a few points because of the fairly harsh wood.
Score: 93 points - now I finally understand why this bottling is legendary in the USA...

Springbank 12yo 1991/2004 Bourbonwood (58.5%, OB, D. 12/'91 Btl. 02/'04, 5986 Bts.)
Nose: Big and fruity; if it hadn't been for the colour I could have mistaken it for a sherry cask. Some diesel?
Quite interesting - although that might have been caused by the dissolved poison in the Nalgene bottles ;-)
Taste: Hot attack, but that's to be expected at this ABV. As soon as you swallow a long tannic burn begins.
Nice and chewy, but it loses quite a few points in the bitter finish. And the shadow lasts for a long time.
Score: 81 points - although my initial impression in the nose was a few points more favourable...

Springbank 15yo (46%, OB, bottled 2002)
Nose: Candy sour-sweetness. Slightly perfumy. Not as powerful (or sherried) as the old 12yo at first.
Opens up after 5 minutes. Something in the fruity corner I can't describe in the foreground. Organic. Nuts.
It grows fruitier and fruitier over time. A little dusty. Faint coastal notes. Drops off again after 10 minutes.
Taste: Very similar to the 12yo - more so than the nose. Cookies. Wood. Dry. Cool burn. Minty fresh.
Deep sherry. In fact, this is a little too sherried and not quite sweet enough for my tastes.
Score: 80 points - not quite as balanced as the 12yo from circa 1996, it seems.

Springbank 21yo (46%, OB, 00/199, bottled +/- 2000 - or late 1990's)
Nose: Ah, that's interesting. Like a blend of the 12 and 15, only better. Powerful.
Sherry and wood again, with an intriguing interplay of spicy and organic notes in the background.
Complex and very well balanced. Fruity episodes. Lemon drops. Oak. Lots of development.
After fifteen minutes it grows some balls and shows some coastal teeth.
Taste: Fruit sweets. Raisin bread. Wood. Salt liquorice? Very nice, but not quite as spectacular as the nose.
Score: 90 points - in this case a year of breaking in has definitely helped the bottle, rising from +/- 87 points.
A smashing malt. Really excellent stuff; great for just sippin' away but it bears close examination as well.

And now for some independent bottlings:

Springbank 15yo 1989/2005 (60.5%, SMWS 27.57)
Nose: Light and lemony. Chalky. Quite sweet. The faintest hint of smoke in the background?
The nose seemed a tad friendlier during a second try. Sweet with something fairnly coastal. Quite harsh.
Taste: Phew... Very herbal. Eucalyptus? Dry and quite gritty towards the finish. Was this finished?
Score: 75 points - it has power but little depth or individuality. Rough and a tad weak on the palate.

Springbank 35yo 1971/2007 (59%, The Whisky Fair, Sherry cask, 239 Bts.)
Nose: Light and a little floral. Then fruity complexities and organics emerge. Whiff of citrus?
Great development over time. Needs water though - and lots of the aforementioned time.
Taste: Smooth start, growing big and fruity. Passion fruit? Tannins start very early on. Sweetness and wood.
Score: 90 points - quite lovely; I nominated it for gold in the Malt Maniacs Awards 2007.

Springbank 36yo 1970/2006 (53,1%, Signatory, Sherry C#1629, 461 Bts.)
Nose: Leather, very old bookstore. Pipe tobacco. A lovely profile in the nose - right up my alley...
Taste: A smooth start on the palate before an attack of wood and old fruits. Touch of smoke?
Powerful tannins in the finish. Just a tad too woody for the 90's for me.
Score: 88 points - but I can see why people would go into the 90's with this Springbank...
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Springbank whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions. On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 
 

I've had the pleasure of sampling some fabulous older Springbanks, but by the time I had
grown really mad about single malts, most of the better expressions were already priced
well outside my financial comfort zone. So, Springbank never grew into a real favourite...

Just when I was wrapping up this profile (June 2008), I received some news on Springbank.
Apparently, the distillery in Campbeltown will be closed down for a while. My anonymous source claimed
that part of the staff will be laid off because Springbank will not produce any whisky in 2009. Apparently
they have enough stocks now. Well, that's odd - for many years they claimed they could raise their prices
because they didn't have enough stocks to satisfy demand. The recent building of Glengyle also seems a
little odd in this respect, but I guess we'll have to wait for an official press release for more details...