Longrow Red 15 Year Pinot Noir
Springbank is one of the most storied distilleries in Scotland, a land rife with history and legends centered around whisky. The history of scotch in general has seen a number of boom and bust cycles and Springbank is one of the few survivors in Campbeltown of a particularly strong bust cycle of when there were upwards of 30 distilleries in this town of a few thousand on the eastern side of the Kintyre peninsula that faces the Isle of Arran and is only separated from Northern Ireland by a little over ten miles of open water. One of the three current major brands of Springbank is Longrow, named after another lost Campbeltown distillery, and is their peated single malt that is twice distilled. The Longrow Red series is a yearly release bottled at cask strength. No two years are the same, as a different type of red wine cask is used to mature the whisky, whether or not any kind of finish is used. This Longrow Red 15 Year was finished in fresh Pinot Noir casks from New Zealand for four years after 11 years in ex-bourbon barrels.
World Whisky Day 2023
Ten years ago, four friends who had only recently started a scotch club heard about World Whisky Day, an international day of whisky celebration. Since 2014, we have held tastings both in person and virtual, sampling 50+ whiskies from 15 countries to over 120 people. Our proceeds will be going to Minneapolis-based charity People and Pets Together, who provide pet food and supplies to local food shelves. If you can’t attend, consider a donation. This year, we happily showcase five whiskies that we think underscores how diverse whisky can be. These will be from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ireland, and Japan.
Workhorse Rye Standard & Strange
Producing whiskey for someone else is not the purview of only the giant distilleries. Craft distilleries do it too. Workhorse Rye was founded in 2011 by bartender Rob East. They focus mostly on rye whiskies and bitters crafted with local ingredients by workers paid a fair wage under good working conditions. The distillery cares very much about the ethics of their production and supply chain. A few years ago, they partnered with high end retail men’s clothing store Standard & Strange to release a one-off whiskey. Only 280 bottles were made, with a mash bill of 50% Admiral malt (heirloom barley from Yolo County), 25% Gazelle rye (from California), and 25% Purple Tibetan barley from south Arizona, all heritage grains. The maturation is comprised of 4/5 Mizunara Japanese oak and 1/5 ex-bourbon barrels. For some time, we thought the name of the whiskey was M.01XX, since that is featured prominently on the label.