Merry Christmas from all at Springbank Distillery

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR SOCIETY MEMBERS
A ROUND UP OF 2022 AT SPRINGBANK DISTILLERY

We wanted to thank you for your continued support and wish all our members a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2023. We’ve put together an update from the distillery covering each of the following:

SOCIETY ON TOUR
AWARDS
A LOOK BACK AT 2022
2023: WHAT’S IN STORE?
PX BALLOT
200TH ANNIVERSARY COUNTDOWN
NEW TEAM MEMBERS

SOCIETY ON TOUR

In 2022 we resumed our ‘Society on Tour’ and had the pleasure of hosting some of you in Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Glasgow and at home in Campbeltown.

It has been invaluable for our team to get back on the road again and connect with all of you dedicated whisky drinkers after so long. However, if you didn’t make it to one of these events don’t worry – we are just getting started! We are looking forward to hosting more of these in 2023 and would love your feedback on any potential whisky tasting venues that will be accessible to host a group of between 20 and 60 members. If you have any ideas or recommendations for this please do send them in. We’ll be sure to select some special whiskies to bring along and share.

In 2022, we were honoured to have taken the top spot in Drinks International’s Top 50, ‘World’s Most Admired Whiskies’.

The World’s Most Admired Whiskies was established to determine the trade’s 50 most revered brands from across the planet, so to be featured at all is an amazing achievement.

We were thrilled this year to receive the award for ‘Best Distillery’ in the Online Scotch Whisky Awards for the second year running. Once again, some members of the team got together in The Washback Bar to tune into the awards and celebrate this recognition over a few drams, which was a great way to round off the year.

A big thank you to all who nominated and voted for us, from all at Springbank! 

A LOOK BACK AT 2022

AN UPDATE FROM FINDLAY ROSS

Director of Production

“2022 was different from recent years of production in that we didn’t commence mashing and distilling operations at Springbank until March rather than our normal start date in January. This was to allow the rummager on our wash still to be replaced, as well as remedial works to take place on the mash tun steering arm. During this time our production team continued to make malt at the floor maltings and to mash and distill at our sister distillery Glengyle (having two distilleries can often have its perks!)

Production at Springbank ran very smoothly this year, and we passed 264,000 LPA for the second year running after 34 weeks of operation. This included around 11% of the production for Longrow and 11% of the production for Hazelburn. We also had one week of local barley production with the rest being Springbank.

As well as having maintenance done on the distillery itself, we also started repair works on bonded warehouses 7 & 9, which required guttering and roofing being replaced along with sections of steel beams replaced. This process has been long and methodical and we are still conducting repairs right until the end of the year – we hope to have these warehouses back in action in early 2023.

Other projects like converting the main fuel source on site to LPG continue to be a work in progress due to delays with planning approval, and we continue to research and plan for a new bottling and dispatch facility to be contracted on site.

In 2023 we plan to produce similar volumes of spirit to 2022, as well as continuing to make improvements to the site such as replacing the dust extraction across the site, and replacing the worn plates in the mash tun.”

WELCOMING VISITORS BACK

We have had another busy year and seen record numbers of visitors make the journey to visit the distillery. We were thrilled to be able to once again welcome people from all over the world to our annual Campbeltown Malts Festival in May. As always the society tastings kicked off the festivities in the Malt Barns and we welcomed over 200 of you to attend this free event. We are pleased to confirm the dates for next years festival as follows:

SAVE THE DATES
CAMPBELTOWN MALTS FESTIVAL 2023
Tuesday 23rd – Friday 26th May 2023

Our company events will take place during the above dates but there is more to enjoy during the full week. More details will be available in the New Year, including information on ticket sales.

NEW EXPERIENCES

We welcomed people from all over the world to take part in Whisky School and enjoy some of our new experiences such as Barley to Bottle and Eat, Sleep, Dram, Repeat. The Washback Bar has allowed our guests to enjoy a little more time at the distillery and sample new releases as well as a selection of cask samples and whiskies from our archive. Experiences subject to availability and production schedules at the distillery. We are currently fully subscribed for future Whisky School weeks and unable to add to the waiting list at this time. 

2023: WHAT’S IN STORE? 

PX BALLOT

We recently launched our new sherry series with the release of Springbank PX. We announced in our last newsletter that we have some stock available exclusively to society members via ballot. This new release has been well received and we hope to hold the ballot soon after our return to work in the New Year. Keep an eye on your emails in January for more details on how to enter.

OUR 200TH ANNIVERSARY

Established in 1828, Springbank is nearing a very special milestone anniversary. In 2023 we will begin the build up to this with the launch of a countdown collection of annual special bottlings. These will be available to a worldwide audience via ballot only. This celebration is inclusive of all Springbank fans around the world and not exclusively to society members but you are the first to know and will be provided with more details in due course. Alongside these limited commemorative bottlings, we will be planning a range of events and experiences for people to join the celebration of this monumental achievement.

NEW RELEASES

In the New Year we have more limited releases to look forward to such as the Springbank 25 Year Old, Local Barley and Hazelburn Sherry Wood. In the months to follow we are pleased to have the next editions of 12 Year Old Cask Strength, Springbank 30 Year Old and Hazelburn 21 Year Old available to launch. As ever, we will be in touch nearer the time to share more details on all of the above new limited releases.

SOME NEW AND SOME FAMILIAR FACES!

The company continues to employ people in the local community to carry out as many roles as possible and in 2022 we welcomed a few more people across a variety of departments including finance, retail, maintenance, production, bottling and hospitality.Here is a snap of some of them on our annual Christmas jumper day!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND BEST WISHES FOR 2023
From all of us at Springbank Distillery

Springbank Distillers Ltd, 9 Bolgam Street, Campbeltown, Scotland, PA28 6HZ
http://experience.springbank.scot/
Contact the Society at society@springbank.scot to join!