Image 1 of 1
Fellow Drammers!
We are VERY excited to share that our big annual Springbank online tasting will take place this year on Saturday, November 22nd, starting at Noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern in the US and 20:00 in Scotland. We are thrilled to welcome back Ranald Watson, who is Sprinbank’s Director of Sales and Marketing. We’ve had the privilege of welcoming Ranald every year or two starting in 2020 (you can find recordings of those events here). As we’ve done in the past, this event will feature the ultra-rare bottles they released at their big annual Campbeltown Malts Festival, which takes place in May each year, and our club is there every year in force (I believe about 20 of our members were on hand this year, from the US, Turkey, Israel, the UK and Europe). They put our a special bottling for each of their brand lines (Springbank, Hazelburn, Longrow and the other distillery they run 3 months a year 100 yards down the road — the Glengyle Distillery, which makes Kilkerran whisky). Your only chance to get one of these bottles is if you line up in the morning the day they are released at the festival. They only released 2,000 half-sized (350ml) bottles of each expression, and luckily by waiting in line over and over until they were sold out, we were able to secure 6 of each for this tasting (with the exception of the Kilkerran release — see below on how we’d handling that). Those bottles sell out within a few hours, and so unless you were there with us this past May, this is likely your only chance to try these special signature releases. The tasting will feature 6 expressions, 4 from the Campbeltown Malts Festival, plus one mystery cage bottle (distillery exclusive) and one recent Kilkerran bottling. Specifically, the sets will include:
Pour #1 - Springbank - Open Day 2025 Bottling. 10yo single malt aged in bourbon and re-charred sherry casks. 57.9% abv. Only 2,000 half-sized (350ml) bottles were released total. 57.9% abv
Pour #2 - Hazelburn - Open Day 2025 Bottling. 19yo single malt matured in fresh tawny port casks. Hazelburn is distilled at Springbank as a triple-distilled unpeated whisky. Again, only 2,000 half-sized bottles were released. 49.2% abv.
Pour #3 - Longrow Open Day 2025 Bottling. 10yo single malt aged in fresh Oloroso sherry casks. Longrow is distilled at the Springbank distillery as a double distilled, faily heavily peated whisky. Again, only 2,000 half-sized bottles released, 55.6% abv.
Pour #4 - Mystery Cage Bottle! If you're not familiar with the "cage bottles" -- they're distillery-only releases, intended as a reward for visiting the distillery. Each person can only get 1 bottle per week and you can only choose from whatever is in the cage at that time (sometimes it's just one bottle!). We've been saving up 3 bottles so that we could include a pour for everyone in this tasting. Each of the 3 bottles are completely different, each set will include a pour from one of them, but we're not telling anyone which one they're getting (we won't even track which set has which pour, so it'll be as much of a mystery to us who is getting what as anyone). It's a mix of Longrow and Springbank cage bottles, all 8 to 10 years old, all 58.6% to 59.6% abv.
Pour #5 - PLEASE NOTE: For all of the Open Day bottles except Kilkerran, we were able to get 6x 350ml bottles, however we were only able to get 3x 350ml bottles of the Kilkerran release. So, the first 45 tasting kits that are ordered will get that pour, the next 30 tastings kits will get SET B -- which, instead of the 2025 Kilkerran Open Day release, will get the 2023 Kilkerran Open Day release, and when we run out of that, the last 15 tasting kits will be SET C, which (instead of a Kilkerran sample), will get a Longrow 8yo Open Day 2023 8yo Oloroso cask ottling at 54.9% abv.
SET A (first 45 Kits): Kilkerran - Open Day 2025 Bottling. 20yo single malt aged in ex-bourbon casks. Kilkerran is distilled at the Glen Gyle Distillery, which is owned and operated by the Springbank team and sits a few hundred yards away. The distillery (at least in its post-1800s era) first started distilling in 2004, making this one of the oldest Kilkerran releases ever. 48.2% abv.
SET B (next 30 kits): Kilkerran - Open Day 2023 Bottling. 17yo Triple Distilled Single Malt. 57.5% abv.
SET C (last 15 kits): Longrow, Open Day 2023 Bottling. 8yo Oloroso Cask Bottling. 54.9% abv
Pour #6 - Kilkerran 8yo Cask Strength. Bourbon Matured, 55.6% abv. Distilled at the Glengyle Distillery by the Springbank team.
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! Please let us know if you have any questions.
Cheers!
Drammers Club