Springbank was founded in 1828 and for nearly 200 years has been producing whisky with involvement from the Mitchell family over five generations. In that time, and to the current day, Springbank is one of the few scotch distilleries producing 100% of the process on site, of a sorts. Springbank is one of the only survivors from when Campbeltown was a roaring center of whisky production to the lean times when there were almost none to leading the charge at the dawn of the 21st century to get Campbeltown recognized as a distinct scotch region. In the past couple of decades, Campbeltown has seen a resurgence of interest and popularity and the Springbank releases in particular have become sought after much in the same fashion as some American bourbons like Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, and others. The Springbank 15 has been aged in ex-sherry casks, purportedly from Miguel Martin in Jerez, Spain.
Minglewood Winter Rye
Mark and Andrew Morrison began distilling in 2016 in a building that used to house the Minglewood Coal and Ice Company, a company that lasted nearly a century providing ice and coal to Wayne County until its closure in the 1950s. Located in Wayne Country, Ohio, the distillery has been seeking to make a name in the region, banking on word-of-mouth to fuel their growth instead of overextending and sacrificing quality. Their portfolio has white spirits like vodka and gin but they have a much larger variety of whiskies, ranging from bottled-in-bond bourbon and rye to a few flavored whiskies. The Minglewood Winter Rye is distilled from local winter rye, the plant being especially useful by lasting through the winters so it would grow rapidly after the snows left for early spring foraging.
Kilkerran Heavily Peated
Glengyle distillery was founded by William Mitchell, one of the co-founders of Springbank, in 1872 and closed in 1925. After many attempts to restart throughout the 20th Century, the distillery finally began production again in 2004 with new stills and other equipment under the same ownership group as Springbank. The distillery sells their offerings under the brand name Kilkerran because the name Glengyle is owned by Loch Lomond and used for their blended malt. The Kilkerran Heavily Peated is a single malt that, as the name implies, is made using heavily peated barley. This is the 8th Edition and was released in May 2023. Though past bottles have listed ppm levels (phenolic parts per million), this edition does not.