Whisky Discovery #312

That Boutique-y Whisky Company Springbank Batch 1 (54.6% abv)

Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

£61.95 50cl (sadly sold out)

'That Boutique-y Whisky Company' from Master of Malt bottles Scotch Single Malt Whiskies from a variety of renowned distilleries in limited batches. These whiskies are adorned with cultish comic-book style labels which feature prominent figures from the whisky industry upon them, as well as other little details for you to find!

These are Single Malts in the truest sense of the term; they are a blend of casks from one distillery. Thanks to their limited nature and popularity it is expected that these to become quite sought after and collectable. 

They are bottled without age statements because each batch is dependent on the parcels of stock received so it is entirely possible that there could be an age difference of thirty years between batches

This first bottling from the Springbank Distillery offers up all the classic oily, coastal flavour you'd expect, and even comes with a superb comic book-style label featuring Caskstrength's Neil and Joel operating Springbank's old Porteus Mill. 

Batch 1 is a release of 274 numbered bottles.

Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt

Nose: Oily, smoky nose with a surge of beautiful heather root and soft peat embers. Plenty of honey sweetness too.

Palate: Creaking, spicy oak to the fore with a development of salted butter and sweet plumes of peat smoke and stewed fruit.

Finish: Long, buttery finish with dark caramel and hints of burning heather.

So What Did We Think?

I'm starting to really appreciate what is being crafted at the Springbank Distillery and looking forward to planning a visit there soon. This is no exception and is another delicious dram from this Campbeltown distillery. Again my notes are almost a mirror copy of the Master of Malt notes, although to be fair I've never pulled up heather to have a nose at their roots (but it's on the list!) 

There is a gentle maritime oily smoky quality to the nose under the sweet heather honey notes. The palate has plenty of spicy wood, soft stewed plums and sweet fragrant smoke, finishing with a rich buttery toffee and wisps of that fragrant smoke lingering around for a good time.

Want one? Too Late! Which goes to show you need to act quickly when limited editions are being relelased! You can keep up to date with what is available from this range by visiting the Master Of Malt webpages for That Boutique-y Whisky Company here.

A Tale of Two Springbanks

I started off writing two single blog posts, one for each of these two 19 Year Old Single Cask whiskies from Master of Malt as I normally would. Then while gathering my thoughts decided that these needed to be brought together as one, as they were both distilled in 1993 and were both matured for 19 years both in hogsheads, yet there was a noticeable difference between the two.

Fortunately I also decided to taste these alongside each other too, however, not only did I line the received samples up in age order, but samples of the same age were lined up in alphabetical order (hence the Deanston being the first nineteen year old to be tasted) and I even established that Cask 129 should come before Cask 410. Now I distinctly remember sorting these out in age order, but was it just lucky that they then followed alphabetically then numerically or does my OCD work on a sub-concious level too?

Whisky Discovery #197

Springbank 19 Year Old Cask 129 Master of Malt (57.8% abv D: 07/05/1993)

Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

£72.95 70cl (only available from Master of Malt)

Cask #129

This is a lovely Springbank with a beautiful hue, bottled for the Single Cask series. 

Distilled on 7th May 1993 before a 19 year maturation in cask #129, a hogshead. 

It was bottled on the 27th November 2012 and just 221 bottles were filled at 57.8% abv

Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt

Nose: Toffee brittle, kelp and hints of linseed oil. Coals on a fire, a little camphor.

Palate: Manuka honey and edamame beans. Rhubarb crumble, allspice, sea spray. Cool smoke.

Finish: Muscovado sugar, a little vanilla. Still very smoky with just a hint of something medicinal.

Whisky Discovery #198

Springbank 19 Year Old Cask 482 Master of Malt (55.2% abv D: 26/11/1993)

Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

£72.95 70cl (only available from Master of Malt)

Cask #482

This is a robust, full-bodied single cask whisky from the Springbank distillery, distilled on 26th November 1993 and aged for 19 years in cask #482, a hogshead.

Bottled exactly 19 years later of 27th November 2012 and 250 bottles were filled at 55.2% abv. 

Expect lots of coastal, smoky flavour...

Tasting Note by The Chaps at Master of Malt

Nose: An oily, coastal nose with hints of heather honey and charred oak. Smouldering.

Palate: Big oak notes to the fore with brackish and crème caramel. Very coastal, just like the nose, this offers a hint of honey, alongside peat smoke and cooked fruit.

Finish: Long, peaty finish. Dark brown sugar and spice.

So What Did We Think?

Unfortunately Kat didn't get to taste these two nineteen year old whiskies either as although on my first tasting of this pair of Springbanks, cask #482 was my personal favourite, I needed to revisit them again the following evening just to make sure (so sorry once again Kat!) 

Just read the two tasting notes from Master of Malt you can quickly see how different these two are. The nose of each offering great flavours. Cask #129 was malty, with vanilla and spice but after a little while in the glass yielded a delicious nose of buttered toast on my second visit, toasted granary bread dripping with butter. When I experienced this I was about to change my mind on these two single cask bottlings until I revisited Cask #429 which is rich and meaty with Balsamic vinegar, dark soy sauce and some honey sweetness, then there is the coastal notes with damp charred wood and hemp rope.

On the palate there are differences too; Cask #129 comes across as slightly tart at first, there's vanilla and oak and a gentle build up of spicy pepper, which settles back to a light honey sweetness and some gentle wood smoke. Cask #429 is the fruitier of the two, with some red berryies, but the spicy pepper comes in waves building up then falling away to sweetness  before building up again and a definite peaty smoke.

What was brought home by nosing and tasting these two Springbank single casks was the skill required by the master distiller blender to bring different casks together to create the 'house' taste of single malt whiskies, ensuring each batch married casks tastes close enough to the previous batch to maintain the brand style.

I wouldn't be disappointed with either of these on my whisky shelf as I really enjoyed both of them. My favourite of the two was cask #429 due to it's rich and meaty notes, but the buttered toast nose of cask #129 almost swayed me for a minute.

Both of these samples came from the new Single Cask Series from Master of Malt.

Want one? Well you have better be quick to get your mitts on one of these two beauties: If it's cask #129 that is calling you click  Cask #129 and if it's my favourite of these two click Cask #482.

Whisky Discovery #158

Longrow 10 Year Old Shiraz Cask (58.9% abv Distilled 19/10/2001)
Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky
You won't find this for sale

Beautiful colour to this Shiraz Casked Longrow experiment

I'm really grateful to David Carson for this sample of a very special 'one of a kind' whisky that he picked up on his recent trip to Cambeltown. I've 'met' David through the wonderful whisky community that is on Twitter, and he is a big fan of the Springbank distillery. You can read the full story 'Been Away Dramlaxing' but in summary:

David stopped off at Cadenhead’s Whisky Shop, which is Scotland’s oldest independent bottler and owned by J & A Mitchell & Co. Ltd, who are incidentally the owners of the Springbank distillery.

The full bottle came from 'the back room' of Cadenhead’s where they sell one of a kind bottles drawn straight from the casks at Springbank distillery. David goes on to say "these really are one of a kind bottles, not 1 of 150 or however many bottles the cask yielded, they have hand written labels, a duty stamp, the top’s sealed and a little tag to say when the sample was drawn and by who. The bottles are priced according to age (with the exception of local barley which is £80), bottles up to 11 year old are £45, 12-15 year old are £60, 16-18 year old goes for £75 and anything older than 19 years old is £100"

Check out David's Glen Untitled blog for his thoughts on this one off whisky, if you haven't come across his blog before you had best put it on your reading list!

So what did I think?

This has a wonderful rich nose, I love a drop of red wine and quite partial to a good Shiraz too. The wine influence is evident in the rich copper colour and the abundance rich vine fruits but the peated barley of the Longrow comes through as a fragrant pipe smoke. On the palate it's very rich and velvet textured, sweet juicy ripe grapes and blackberries. The peaty smoke is still there and a peppery spice too.

The finish is a little drying and there is musty wood flavour, like a wine soak cork. The pepper spice remains with the fragrant pipe smoke wafting through it all.

Wow, this was really more-ish and I could see why David was really pleased with his find! Not sure if we'll ever see something like this again and I wonder what happened to the rest of the cask. I must start my pilgrimage to Campbeltown soon!

Whisky Discovery #137

Hazelburn 12 Year Old (46% abv OB)
Cambeltown Single Malt
Circa £46.00 70cl

A Skype Tasting - Hazelburn 12 Year Old

This was a result of a sample swap with another whisky enthusiast through Twitter. I've made some really great friends on Twitter, a few I have met at the whisky shows we've attended, but this was the first time I've swapped samples.

We each chose five drams from each others shelf and bottled up the miniatures and sent them off first class post. Then one evening we arranged a Skype call to run through some of the samples. We started our Skype meeting with a drop of The English Whisky Co Ltd Chapter 6, and this Hazelburn was dram No.2 of the evening.

Hazelburn is a fairly new to the range of whiskies produced at Springbank, and gains it's light, delicate character through being distilled three times in the distillery's old copper stills. It's made with unpeated barley, making the spirit light, fruity and very subtle.

Hazelburn is named after one of the old Campbeltown distilleries. Most of the distillery buildings are apparently still standing, though the distillery is long defunct.

First distilled in 1997, Hazelburn was first released as an 8 year old in 2005 and was so successful that all 6,000 bottles sold out within a matter of weeks. The 12 year old was released in 2009, and that was later followed by the CV.

So what did I think?

The Hazelburn 12 year old is matured in sherry casks and comes naturally coloured and non chill filtered. It has a lovely bronze colour and the nose is incredibly rich, the influence of the sherry being immediately apparent. There is a slight vanilla sweetness, and a herbal woody, oaken note too. On the palate it was very smooth, probably due to the triple distillation, a nutty sweetness, medicinal herbs, and a light peppery spice. The medium length finish starts with the peppery spice which is followed by a fruity sweetness shrouded in light smoke and a feint salty note at the very end.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience of Hazelburn, and we followed this dram with some Springbank CV which paired beautifully with this Hazelburn.

Whisky Discovery #107

Springbank CV NAS (OB, bottled 2011, 46% abv 70cl)
Cambeltown Single Malt Whisky
Circa £35.00 70cl

My official May 2012 addition to my journey Springbank CV

I wanted to add some Campbeltown whisky to my own whisky CV and what better way than starting with the Springbank CV

Campbeltown is one of Scotland's four recognised whisky-producing regions and is situated on the Mull of Kintyre, some 132 miles from Glasgow. I recall reading Richard Paterson's description of his first journey there in his book 'Goodness Nose' Richard travelled there by bus which seemed to take forever. Google Maps tell me it would be a 2 3/4 hour journey by car, and even nowadays a four hour journey by bus.

Cambeltown is a historic Royal Burgh and has been occupied for over 8000 years. Once home to a big fishing fleet, there were also no less than 37 distilleries established here during the 19th century, earning the town the nickname "The Whisky Capital of the World". However by 1925, with the closing of Reichlachan Distillery, Springbank and Glen Scotia were the only distilleries left.

The opening of Mitchells Glengyle Distillery on 25th March 2004 incresed the number of distilleries in Campbeltown to three, allowing the town to legitimately reclaim its place amongst the great whisky producing regions.

The Springbank Distillery is unique. It is the oldest independent family owned distillery in Scotland. Founded in 1828 on the site of Archibald Mitchell's illicit still, the Springbank Distillery is now in the hands of his great great great grand son, Hedley G. Wright.

Springbank is the only distillery in Scotland to carry out the full production process on the one site. 100% of the traditional floor malting, maturation and bottling is done at the distillery in Campbeltown. It therefore produces one of the most hand made whiskies in Scotland, with traditional production methods being used throughout the process, and human involvement at each and every stage.

They proudly claim that it is the only distillery in Scotland to have never chill-filtered, neither do they add any artificial colourings to any of their single malts.

It is the only distillery in Scotland to produce three different single malts, Springbank, Longrow and Hazelburn, using three different production methods.

Springbank CV is the product of a variety of different cask types and sizes, all specially selected by Director of Production Frank McHardy and Distillery Manager Stuart Robertson. Frank and Stuart's years of experience allowed them to choose a range of casks, every one complementing the other to ensure a great whisky with lots of flavour and the classic Springbank style.

What does CV mean? Chairman's Vat? Currriculum vitae? Curvee of Vintages? It means whatever you want it to mean, enjoying the whisky is the most important thing.

So what did I think?

Whether the CV stands for curriculum vitae or Chairman's Vat, I'm not really sure, but I've read it is a vatting of 7, 10 and 14 year old Springbank which has been matured in bourbon casks (approx 70%) sherry casks (approx 25%) and port casks (remainder!)


The nose is a confusing array of aromas at first, and it needed a long time in the glass and plenty of nosing to try and decipher it. Initially there was a 'damp earth' type of aroma, a musty dampness though not unpleasant. after a little while there is a toffee sweetness, and subdued sweet sherry, lots of dried fruit, there's even a hint of mint and liquorice. A drop or two of water seems to calm the nose down a bit and it becomes sweet and fragrant. It's big and full on the palate, with dark brown sugar, very fruity and spicy, with some coastal character too, sherry notes come through along with a depth of oak and spice. A drop or two of water sweetens it again with a creamy mouth feeling. It finishes with the oak developing a spicy peppery feeling, long and even a little smoky.

I'm keen to try more from this distillery and will be looking to compare this against their 10,12 and 15 year old malts (I will secrete a small sample bottle away until the 10 and/or 12 and 15 year olds land on my shelf).