Springbank 12 Year Burgundy
Campbeltown is in some ways a whisky ghost town, once home to over 30 distilleries yet now only three remain, like gunslingers in an old Western. Looked at another way, however, and whisky in Campbeltown is resurgent. The three distilleries remaining are successful and robust, with Springbank leading the pack as one of the most well-regarded in Scotland. Still the only distillery to house the entire process on site, from malting to bottling, they have the capacity and foresight to experiment on the side while still supporting their core range (including the Hazelburn and Longrow lines). This Springbank 12 Year Burgundy has the spirit aged in first fill Burgundy barrels, which means the wine’s influence is stronger. The Longrow Red series typically experiments with wine finishes, so seeing the Springbank spirit treated thus is a welcome treat.
Lot No. 40
The original Lot No. 40 was released by Corby Distributors in the late 90s under the Canada Whisky Guild series but discontinued it a few years after the turn of the century. Because of the small window of release and amount produced, bottles of it became rare and highly sought after. The brand was reintroduced in 2012 as a premium rye and has continued ever since to great acclaim. Unlike some Canadian whiskies called ryes, Lot 40 is made of 90% rye and 10% malted rye. Nothing that isn’t rye, in other words! Lot No. 40 supposedly refers to a plot of land in Ontario that was the home of Joshua Booth, a Canadian pioneer and politician, and an ancestor of one of Hiram Walker’s distillers. Recently, Hiram Walker has released a cask strength Lot No. 40, which quickly sold out its initial first run.
Green Spot
The Irish whiskey tradition is every bit as proud – and sometimes convoluted – as their Scottish neighbors to the east. Distilled at the New Middleton Distillery for Irish Distillers, an arm of the Pernod Recard, and distributed by Mitchell & Son of Dublin, keeping track of the Green Spot from barley to bottle can be an adventure in and of itself. Regardless, Green Spot is a bonded whisky and one of the few remaining pot still whiskies left in Ireland, deriving its name from the practice of marking casks of different ages with a spot of colored paint to tell them apart. At one time a 10 year old whiskey, the current iteration is made up of whiskies aged 7-10 years. The whiskey has been steadily popular over the past century and more. An older sibling, the Yellow Spot, is aged in Malaga wine casks.