About Springbank

In 1828, Springbank Distillery was founded on the site of Archibald Mitchell's illicit still in Campbeltown. (Today, Mitchell's great-great-great-grandson owns the distillery.) Within ten years, its whisky was so well-regarded that a blender by the name of John Walker purchased 118 gallons of whisky from Springbank at 43 pence a gallon.

By the turn of the century — as worldwide demand for Scotch whisky seemed insatiable — distilleries throughout Scotland began cutting corners and outsourcing parts of the distillation process. Springbank Distillery, however, remained true to its Scottish heritage and today, remains one of only two distilleries in Scotland to perform every step of the whisky making process — from malting barley to bottling whisky — on the same premises.

After malting and lightly peating the barley, the distillers at Springbank mill and mash it in cast-iron mash tuns that are nearly a century old. The pure spring water used during the mashing process is sourced from Crosshill Loch, which in turn is fed by springs seeping from the northern slopes of 1,100-foot tall Beinn Ghuilean. After mashing the grains, the wash is slowly fermented over the course of 70 hours — one of the longest fermentation processes in Scotland — before being distilled. Because some of the wash is distilled twice and some is distilled three times, Springbank Whisky is said to be distilled two and a half times.