Campbeltown news announcement

There are many indications that by now no whisky producer will be able to surprise consumers with any new edition of its whisky. Unless it decides not to sell it to the US market. That's because, as required by U.S. law, any novelty must be reported to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau there, known simply as TTB for short. And the bureau must, among other things, publish the labels of products to be marketed. From here we have learned many times about the planned launches of Ardbeg, Bunnahabhain or Tobermory. Today it was the turn of Springbank and Glengyle.

Thanks to the "courtesy" of TTB officials, we now know what the upcoming launches from under J&A Mitchell & Company will look like. And they promise to be extremely interesting.

For starters, another edition Springbank Local Barley, which is a liquor traditionally made from barley grown within a radius of up to about ten kilometers from the distillery, on the Kintyre Peninsula. This time we're talking about a 10-year-old whisky, for which the basis was Belgravia barley, sourced from Glencraigs farm crops. The market will release 15,000 bottles of liquor distilled in May 2011 and bottled in December 2021. Springbank 10yo Local Barley will have a power of 51.6%.

The next launch will be a peaty Longrow RED. This time we're talking about a 15-year-old whisky matured in pinot noir wine barrels from New Zealand. This whisky spent 11 years in bourbon barrels, after which it went into red wine barrels - for another 4 years. Such a long period of additional maturation is certainly no longer a "finish", but a double maturation, hence there is no mention of any finish on the label. Edition limited to 9400 bottles of 51.4% whisky.

From US leaks we also learn of the planned release of two editions Kilkerran, whisky produced at the Glengyle distillery, also owned by J&A Mitchell & Company. We are talking about Kilkerran 8yo Cask Strength Sherry Cask Matured (58.1%) and Kilkerran 8yo Cask Strength Port Cask Matured (57,9%).

Kilkerran labels are silent on the size of the announced editions, also limited after all. We will still have to wait for this information. The Kilkerran label explains instead that the whisky produced at Glengyle was named Kilkerran because names with the prefix Glen were not usually applied to distilleries in Campbeltown, but are characteristic of the Speyside region. Just in case our column is read by the person responsible for preparing labels for Glengyle, we hasten to report that while, indeed, the largest number of distilleries with "glen" in their name can be found in Speyside, Campbeltown was once home to Glenramskill, Glen Nevis, Glenside distilleries, not to mention Glengyle and Glen Scotia. Kilkerran, on the other hand, took its name from the old, original name of Campbeltown (before it became "Campbell's town") and had to be introduced because Glengyle is now a proprietary name owned by another company.

We will be following the distillery media space for more information on the aforementioned new editions, including, most importantly, the planned release date. In the meantime, all fans of Campbeltown whisky are encouraged to take a look at the House of Whisky Online's current range of products Springbank, Longrow i Kilkerran.


[31.01.2022 / Photo: J&A Mitchell & Company]