Campbeltown

Longrow Red 11 Year Shiraz Cask

Longrow Red 11 Year Shiraz Cask

Longrow is one of the three main divisions of Springbank and features their peated whiskies (the others are Springbank and Hazelburn). Furthermore, this is one of three Longrow offerings, always released at cask strength. The Red comes from the fact that a new red wine cask is used to finish the whisky every year. This particular release was aged in Australian Shiraz casks. We wanted to try the base model Longrow Red, as we did at a Merlin’s Rest Tasting last year, but it has sadly been discontinued. How will this one be different from the regular Longrow Red, and how will it compare to the other Campbeltown we’ve tried?

Hazelburn 12 Year

Hazelburn 12 Year

Not all Scotch regions were created equally, and neither have they aged with equal grace – or solvency. The Campbeltown region once had over thirty distilleries yet now only three remain. While Hazelburn was a distillery in Campbeltown, it closed in 1926 in part due to the rise of prohibition in the U.S. and beyond. This current spirit, however, is a bottling by one of the three surviving distilleries in town, Springbank. It also holds the distinction of being one of only two distilleries in Scotland to perform every step in the whisky making process; the other is Kilchoman. The Hazelburn 12 is triple-distilled (you can tell from the picture on the bottle of three pot stills) and is non-peated. The distillery’s peated offering, Longrow, and the main Springbank whisky have all won awards. This is Scotchology’s first Campbeltown.