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.
Craigellachie 13 Year Bas-Armagnac
While Craigellachie exists in the Speyside region of Scotland, the distillery has long been proud of forging its own style that doesn’t always match up with its neighbors, whether that means using heritage equipment from a bygone era or adding a new twist to the production process. A new entrant into distillery’s core line of offerings, the Craigellachie Bas-Armagnac takes the distillery’s core 13 year single malt and finishes it for over a year in casks from Gascony that once held Bas-Armagnac. Translated as Lower Armagnac, it is a region in southwestern France along the border with Spain. Grapes grown in this region are blended into a specific style of brandy that uses column stills in the distillation rather than the pot stills often used in cognac production. The Bas-Armagnac region accounts for about 60% of all Armagnac production.
Bunnahabhain Toiteach
Bunnahabhain was founded in 1881 and was for its first several decades only received supplies by sea. Interestingly, the village of Bunnahabhain itself was founded to house the workers for the distillery, making the two even more intertwined than is often the case. Word began to spread after an actual road was put in during the early 1960s and production expanded. The name of the distillery in Gaelic means “Mouth of the River”. In 2003 the distillery was purchased by Burn Stewart, which is currently folded under Heineken Beverages. The Bunnahabhain Toiteach breaks a little from tradition in being lightly peated, as the distillery is generally more known for making unpeated whisky. Toiteach is pronounced “toch tach” and means “smoky” in Gaelic. It has since been replaced by the Toiteach A DhĂ but you can still find the original floating around in stores on occasion.