ANNE BROCK MASTER GIN DISTILLER

BOMBAY SAPPHIRE32 | AUTUMN 2021

SHE SET OUT TO BE A MEDICAL DOCTOR, NOW ANNE BROCK IS THE MASTER DISTILLER IN CHARGE OF THE FASTEST GROWING PREMIUM GIN BRAND IN THE WORLD – BOMBAY SAPPHIRE. TIM SHEAHAN REPORTS FROM HAMPSHIRE

I’ve got the best job in the world!” beams Anne Brock. It has been more than a year since the global pandemic struck. A period that can be defined by uncertainty, ever-changing restrictions and challenging conditions, regardless of your profession. But for Brock, the master distiller at Hampshire’s Bombay Sapphire, she is

only looking back on this time with a sense of pride.

“The first lockdown was especially challenging,” she recalls. “But we got through it and that’s thanks to our fantastic team we have here and the incredible network of support I had through Barcadi’s operations. “As a result we managed to produce all of the gin we needed to and more.”

While hospitality continues to reopen, Bombay Sapphire has once again opened its doors to a wealth of visitors eager to enjoy a tour and a gin-based cocktail at its picturesque Laverstoke Mill home in Winchester.

And, in the form of Anne Brock, the guardian of Bombay Sapphire, those lucky patrons are in very safe hands indeed. But before the wonderful world of gin came calling, Brock has envisioned becoming a doctor and to work for Médecins Sans Frontières.

However, it swiftly became clear that it simply wasn’t the right time for her to pursue this path so Brock would depart medical school. Upon leaving education she combined roles in hospitality with travelling before eventually returning to university, securing a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

It wasn’t long before a friend suggested that she should potentially pursue a role in distilling, something that would be the perfect marriage of her chemistry knowledge and expertise in hospitality.

So she did just that.

The, now, doctor would become the lead distiller at Bermondsey Distillery in London before taking on the prestigious title of master distiller at Bombay Sapphire in 2017.

Little more than two years later, Anne Brock was installed as the first female head of The Gin Guild, the industry body that celebrating excellence in the distillation and worldwide promotion of the spirit.

Speaking at the time Nicholas Cook, director general of The Gin Guild, said: “There is a strong historical tradition of women distillers and female Master Distillers are adding the variety and innovation that is fuelling the continuing global success of gin.

“We are delighted to welcome Anne as The Gin Guild’s fourth – and first female – Grand Rectifier, to continue the work of her predecessors in bringing together craft distillers, brand leaders and all those involved in the industry around the world to share knowledge and promote excellence in the category.”

And in her role at Bombay Sapphire, Brock continues to excel. Evidenced in figures released last year which revealed that Bombay Sapphire was the fastest growing premium gin brand in the world, reporting a 7.9 percent increase to 4.7m cases in 2019.

Leading her team of distillers, Brock works with Ivano Tonutti, the master of botanicals for Bombay Sapphire, who has been responsible for sourcing each of the 10 individual botanical ingredients for more than a decade. Tonutti works alongside the growers to ensure that the distillery gets the best quality crop each year. The flavour of the gin comes from these botanicals so any changes in harvest can affect the gin that is made at Laverstoke Mill.

Brock explains: “Ivano and his team work tirelessly to ensure that we see very minimal changes in the quality and taste profile of the batches of botanicals we receive at the distillery. “Once they are put into the still then my distillers are trained to nose and taste the gin as it is made, this constant monitoring allows us to notice any differences in the spirit and adjust the distillation if needed.

“Finally, I nose and taste each batch and can blend different batches together so that every bottle of Bombay Sapphire that reaches our consumers tastes exactly as they would expect. It is not an easy job, but it is very satisfying!”

THE DISTILLERY Exquisite events and experiences include: Explore the Bombay Sapphire Distillery with a guided tour in the glassA short train journey from London, this is house that helps you discover the ten the perfect stop over for a trip outside the exotic botanicals infused into every drop city. Forty-five minutes from Stonehenge, of Bombay Sapphire Gin, including an the Bombay Sapphire distillery is based insight into Heatherwick Studios’ inspired in Winchester, the historical capital of design. England.

Laverstoke Mill is the home of the beloved Bombay Sapphire gin. Guests can explore the stunning Heatherwick Studio -designed botanical glasshouses and the Victorian and Georgian paper mill in a beautiful conversation area with over 100 years of history. Your host will take you through the Botanical Dry Room, a sensory experience to uncover your flavour preferences and you learn all about the rare vapour infusion distillation process which makes Bombay Sapphire gin so exquisite. Mill Bar helping you choose a cocktail from our menu, selected using your flavour preferences with a take home card detailing your personal taste profile.

Elsewhere, the Gin Cocktail Masterclass is an interactive session on cocktail culture where you can learn the tricks of the trade, creating your own cocktails that you can later master at home.

Your experience begins with a fully guided Discovery Experience followed by a complimentary cocktail in the Mill Bar. There, you will be hosted by one of their gin experts to create one of Bombay Sapphire signature cocktails.

And with that aforementioned, unprecedented, year hopefully behind us, Brock is more than keen to get back to her job of focusing on making excellent gins that are enjoyed the world over by millions.

“The post-pandemic world cannot come soon enough for me!” she says. “It has been amazing to see how people have adapted over the past year and how that has driven trends in the gin world.

“And whilst we have seen people becoming more confident in making great drinks at home and being a bit more creative in the way they use their favourite spirits I think that everyone, myself included, cannot wait until they can go back to the bars and restaurants they love and have the experts make drinks for them,” she says.

“These at-home cocktail making skills will not be lost, but they will not replace the brilliant pubs, restaurants, and bars that we have all missed so much.” But the team at Bombay Sapphire aren’t simply resting on their laurels when it comes to pubs, bars and restaurants reopening, instead focusing on new product innovations such as Sunset.

Sunset is a limited edition expression inspired by the delicate warmth and golden orange glow of the setting sun, Bombay Sapphire Sunset adds Indian white cardamom, turmeric and Murcian sun-dried mandarin peel to create a softly spiced flavour profile with a background hit of bittersweet citrus.

Product innovation is of particular importance especially, as Brock says, in a constantly changing gin space.

She explains: “We see so many innovations and new releases monthly driven by a consumer ap-preciation of all things gin. It is why I love gin so much, if you have a prominent flavour of juniper you can be a creative as you like. “As an industry we do need to make sure that all the products that are claiming

to be ‘GIN’ comply with the definition of what a gin is to protect this glorious spirit whilst continuing to recruit new consumers into the space.”

She adds: At Bombay Sapphire, we are constantly exploring new innovations in the category to best serve our trendsavvy consumers and we know that innovation is a key driver of performance.

“At the moment, key trends which are driving growth include new flavour expressions occasions to enjoy superpremium products (our Bombay Bramble launch played into this trend – a new gin bursting with the 100 percent natural flavour of freshly harvested blackberries and raspberries), and a need for convenience without compromise, as demonstrated by the booming RTD category.”

And Brock says that RTDs are here to stay – drinks that are experiencing extraordinary growth in all markets, and we can expect more to come. “IWSR predicts the category to grow 32% in the next four years, which means it will be worth £350m by 2024,” she explains. “They are no longer are they something you drink for convenience but a product you would choose to drink and are now attracting a more premium audience.”

Brock adds: “As we go in and out of lockdowns, the rise of the outdoor and park or picnic occasion becomes more and more important. People want to enjoy their favourite drinks without the quality or taste being compromised.

“We have launched three RTDs for Bombay Sapphire across various parts of Europe including Bombay and Tonic, Bombay & Light Tonic and Bombay Bramble, allowing our gin fans access to their favourite Bombay drinks, whenever they want, wherever they are.”

While RTDs are undeniably a booming part of the sector, away from the beverage itself, Brock highlights a number of other areas that should be placed in the spotlight. u Juniper berries | Tuscany, Italy u Angelica root | Saxony, Germany u Almonds | Spain u Lemon peel | Murcia, Spain u Liquorice | China u Orris root | Tuscany, Italy u Coriander seeds | Morocco u Cassia bark | Indonesia u Cubeb berries | Java u Grains of paradise | West Africa

Anne Brock, master distiller at Bombay Sapphire, says she has the best job in the world

“Sustainability is certainly something that a lot of distillers are looking at now and working hard to develop technologies to reduce our impact on the planet,” she says. “I am not sure you could call it a ‘trend’ as such, but it will be continued to be talked about by brands as more consumers expect sustainable practices.

“We are confident that Bombay Sapphire can help lead the way on this – sustainability has long been an area of focus for us, and we continue to work hard at it every day, including our efforts to keep our distillery at Laverstoke Mill running as efficiently as possible with measures like using a biomass boiler which is fuelled by local, sustainably sourced woodchips.

“Energy is further reduced by recovering heat from the distillation process and using it to pre-heat the spirit. We recently announced that by the end of this year all 10 botanicals will be certified sustainable with the ‘For Life’ certification by ECOCERT – a first for any gin.

“We have adopted a 360-degree approach to sustainability – caring for the farmers, their communities as well as the botanicals they grow.”

Brock also says she’s seen a rise in the amount that people are making cocktails at home and “upskilling” themselves.

She explains: “We don’t see this trend going away as people continue to host at home, as well as heading back into bars when it’s safe to do so. Due to this new upskilling, as bars reopen, bartenders will be greeted by more informed drinkers.

“This is exciting because aficionados make better appreciators and hopefully people will be open to experimenting and trying new, more creative cocktails back in the bar.” But regardless where people enjoy these drinks, Anne Brock is rightfully confident that the distillery she calls home will play a part.

“Bombay Sapphire is the fastest growing premium gin brand in the world, so it is definitely at the front of the growth in gin we are seeing in the UK.

“The gin is perfectly balanced making it the ideal canvas for creativity which means we see people choosing Bombay Sapphire, time and time again, to make drinks at home, or have drinks made for them in a bar when they are celebrating those moments that matter.”

It has been a crazy year and unfortunately, nobody with any sense would bet that the Covid-19 pandemic is behind us for good. Of all spirits, whisky distillers have the longest memories and while things have been tough this last year, the past-down tales of having your largest market drying up due to US Prohibition 100-years-ago is enough to still send shivers down their spines.

At least with Covid people were still drinking, just not in pubs or clubs.

With some of the new kids on the block such as craft gin, rum and others who depend more on immediate sales, Covid was more than a kick in the seat of the pants. “It’s definitely been a tough time and the world still looks very different to how it did a year or so ago, but we’ve also seen distilleries find real opportunities and insight into the way people are interacting with their brands. “Covid has really sped up shopping trends and quickly changed business plans, and we’ve found many brands have taken this opportunity to innovate their business and get real clarity on what their message is,” says Sophie Cowles, strategy director of branding agency Kingdom & Sparrow.

“Although we finally seem to be returning to some sort of social normality, it’s safe to assume that some Covid-cultivated habits will remain and people will still expect brands to be convenient for home use, and not just revert back to trade and offline retail only. Businesses have learnt a lot about their values, their market trends and their changing customer mindsets over the last year, and distilleries should be no different. “As we emerge from Covid people want certainty and consistency more than ever, so it’s a great time to invest all that learned knowledge back into your brand and make sure it really engages people, reflecting who you are and what you

offer,” she says. To expand on this forward thinking, consider your branding. As US-based CODO Design asks, is it time for a refresh or a rebrand; an evolution or a revolution?

Do you need just a little tweak to get rid of a perception of brand staleness, or do you need a rebrand due to outdated thinking, to reflect new ownership or some other major change? The Covid-19 pandemic was worldwide event that none of us were expecting, like looking up an seeing a black swan flying across the sky. When lockdown started last April, people started panic-buying toilet paper, pasta and flour – an odd combination in the best of times.

Some countries like South Africa flat-out banned alcohol sales – prompting a massive buy of pineapples used to make homemade hooch – others limited the hours alcohol could be sold, while here in the UK pubs, taprooms, tasting rooms, restaurants and clubs were all closed. While many of us were positive the corona virus would disappear by summer and there would be a quick return to normal, that never happened, and a Covid summer, led into a Covid autumn, winter and spring. But, finally a light can be seen at the end of the tunnel. One of the coldest springs in decades has ended, pubs have reopened, and craft distilleries are amping-up production.

As this issue goes to print, it appears that tough travel restrictions will be remaining in place through summer. People who would have been doing their cocktail drinking in Spain, Greece or France, will be doing it here in the UK. It is back to being a good time to be a distiller.

“The spirits category has so much potential at the moment, to tap into new selling channels and engage customers differently. It doesn’t necessarily mean a rebrand, but it does mean relooking at the business plan and creating as many opportunities as possible,” says Cowles. “Branding shouldn’t work in isolation. It sits side by side with great sales and marketing plans, so our focus is on understanding the business and the category, and making sure we’re designing with the consumer in mind for real effectiveness. Any good rebrand should see an uplift in sales, as long as the rest of the business plan is working alongside it.

“It’s a difficult time for many across industries to be investing money back into their brands for sure, but the tough times are often when people need to do it most and I’d argue when they are more focused on what’s really important. We’ve definitely experienced this with our own business too,” she says.

Let’s first go over a few definitions.

Your brand is your customer’s perception of your brewery, including your products and your culture. It’s your total package, defining who you are and what makes you different from all your competitors.

Your brand identity is the visual language you use to tell this story. This includes your logo, your bottle shape, can label, and image.

Brand essence is a distillation of the most compelling idea behind your brewery. When you’re having a meeting and someone says: ‘This is who we are’, and you all nod in agreement, that is brand essence – though most times someone says: “This isn’t who we are….”

Rebranding is a shift in your core message. Coors realized that by far its biggest seller was Coors Light – they dropped the ‘light’ and now it’s just ‘Coors’. Kids’ cereals dropped ‘Sugar’ in their names, ‘Sugar Frosted Flakes’ became ‘Frosties’. Core logo, website, and brand identity can all be changed.

Sometimes these rebrands work and sometimes they’re total disasters. Remember Royal Mail’s change to Consignia. What does the Royal Mail do, handles mail. What does Consignia do? Nobody knew and after a year, it rebranded its rebrand back to Royal Mail.

What most of you do from time to time is a brand refresh. Think of this as an update, like painting your house. Same core values, just adding a bit of excitement to something that seems a bit dated.

Another term we need to define for you is positioning, which is also called a point of difference. A point of difference is a something about the brand that makes it different from other competing brands.

What brings these terms together is educating the consumer, according to Richard Horwell of Brand Relations. “You can have the best tasting product on the market, but if no one picks it up and tries it, no one will ever know,” says Horwell. “Ninety percent of a first-time purchase is based on the branding; it’s why a consumer will pick your product over their regular choice or your competition.”

What Horwell cautions is that you do not confuse design with branding. “Design is what goes on your bottle’s label, branding is the message you want to give your target consumer – and that message should be ‘BUY ME’,” he says.

So how do you communicate your message to your target audience? Education and that starts with yourself.

It is hard thinking of another industry where the founder sees themselves as the product, as much as in craft distilling industry. If it is impossible for you to take a step back and see your spirit as your customer sees it and how it reflects on them – not you – then you’re wasting your time in rebranding.

“From an agency perspective though we see many distillery brands without a very strong consumer-facing identity. It’s very hard to differentiate on just quality or process or botanicals now, and there were a record number of distilleries opened in 2021, despite Covid-19. For distilleries who want to be more than just local, it’s a real challenge to get noticed,” says Cowles.

“When an existing distillery comes to us, common themes are often they don’t have a clear and engaging proposition, or

Sophie Cowles, strategy director of branding agency Kingdom & Sparrow: “We see many distillery brands without a very strong consumer-facing identity.”

very distinctive brand assets (usually due to not having a strong proposition) and lack brand consistency across platforms and selling channels.

“Distillery brands of course need to be flexible as they’re engaging visitors, buyers, bar managers, bartenders and now consumers in their home on and offline, so parts of the brand will need to be dialled up, depending on the audience and the format. However having consistent and engaging visual brand assets that flex and strengthen the brand and hold everything together are sure to build trust and loyalty,” she says.

When you first start developing your product you will need to ask yourself a lot of questions, those questions will be much the same as the ones your target audience will ask.

For example: ‘what is unique about this product?’; ‘why is it better than the competition’; ‘should I risk spending money on this untried brand?’; ’does this product offer value for money?’ Your branding needs to answer all these questions. “The most expensive word in the food and drink category is ‘education’, if you need to take time to educate the consumer, away from the packaging, then you will either spend millions or fail, or both,” says Horwell.

The best place to educate your target audience is on your product’s packaging, so your branding needs to be clear and perfect. Trade buyers and consumers need to understand the product without having you standing there. That’s what the branding is for; to provide instant education.

Richard Horwell of Brand Relations: “99% of a firsttime purchase is based on the branding”

According to Horwell, what helps this along is linking your brand to what your audience already understands. “We all tend to pigeonhole everything in our lives and whether we are conscious of it or not, when we see a new brand, we put it in its place. So, if you are attempting to break new ground with an idea or base ingredient then you need to add something to the mix that the consumer knows,” he says.

The key is to make sure the messaging is easy to understand and include elements that consumers can understand instantly. Trade buyers only want products that will sell, they don’t want old stock taking up room on their shelves. A product has to sell easily and quickly. Buyers won’t give you long to prove that your brand works, it’s in one day and out the next, so, make it easy for the consumer to choose your product fast.

Horwell says that in order to get your branding right, you need to ask yourself and others some questions: brands will sit alongside it? u How will my spirit stand out against them? u What is my brand message? For example, is it based on great taste, treating yourself or pure refreshment? u Will my consumer be able to read the messages I have on the packaging from a distance, without picking it up? u Why should a consumer buy my brand instead of their regular choice? u What is the point of difference between the other brands and mine?

Getting the answers to these questions is the first step to creating brilliant branding.

“Today we have more choice of food and drinks than ever before and the big brands are no longer dominating the market. Many consumers want to try something different, but that doesn’t mean they have all day to stand around in-store or go online to research every product. They need to be drawn to a brand that relates to then and says, ‘buy me, I am new and exciting’,” says Horwell.

Although in pure spirit sales figures it remains low, according to some experts direct-to-consumer (DTC) beer sales is one of the most exciting things to come out of the pandemic.

US design company CODO Design believes convenience will be one of the most important drivers of the economy over the next 10-years, what CODO says is a natural outgrowth of the Amazon “Prime-ification” of the world.

“Why go to the grocery store if I can buy something with one click on my phone? And to think that the alcohol shopping experience will be an exception to this trend is myopic,” says CODO.

Will a distillery that decides to only do DTC succeed? That is the million pound question. Already some spirit brands – especially no-alcohol brands – are doing this, with the thought behind this being it is too difficult to get onto a supermarket shelf. By developing a compelling brand and marketing campaign, pouring money into advertising on TV and social media, and you might succeed.

successful businessman who could turn his hand to anything. When I asked him his secret to success, his response was ‘when you explain something to someone and they don’t understand, it’s not them that’s stupid, it’s you for not explaining it properly’.

“This is the same with branding, just putting your brand name on the front and thinking the brand will sell is crazy, Consumers don’t care about a ‘new’ brand name, they care about what’s in it for them. So, make sure your message conveys this. Always focus on them, your customers, not you,” he says.

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EVERY DISTILLERY SAYS THAT WHAT THEY DO IS UNIQUE. AT SPRINGBANK – SCOTLAND’S OLDEST INDEPENDENTLY OWNED FAMILY DISTILLERY – THEY REALLY MEAN IT. VELO MITROVICH REPORTS

If you’ve raised a toddler, you will remember this stage when their favourite word is ‘because’. “Why did you draw all over the wall?” “Because.” “Why won’t you eat your broccoli?” “Because.”

When talking to David Allen of Springbank, the distillery’s head of sales marketing, this comes back to you. Not to imply, infer, or otherwise say that Allen’s vocabulary is limited to just one word – and indeed the articulate David’s speech is far from being constrained in any way.

However, there are some things that Springbank does that you just have to accept with a ‘because’. Because somewhere in the eons since this distillery began creating highly coveted whisky nearly 200-years-ago, the reasons why certain procedures are done a certain way seems to have been lost. But, if what you are making whiskies that fans and buyers treat like gold dust, why change? Just accept that ‘because’ is reason enough.

Home for Springbank is Campbeltown, one of the five areas in Scotland categorized as a distinct malt whisky producing region and home to Campbeltown single malts. At one point the region had over 30 distilleries and proclaimed itself the whisky capital of the world.

However, a focus on quantity instead of quality, along with the combination of Prohibition and the Great Depression in the United States led to most of these distilleries going out of business. In addition, the Campbelton tradition of heavy, oily malts fell out of a favour. Today, only three active distilleries remain in Campbeltown: Glen Scotia, Glengyle and Springbank.

Archibald Mitchell established Springbank in 1828 with an illicit still; today the distillery is in the hands of Hedley Wright, Mitchell’s great, great grandson, the fifth generation of the Mitchell family to own and manage Springbank Distillery. In going through global whisky fans and collectors’ blogs regarding Springbank, there never seems enough whisky being made to meet demand. While this is wonderful position to be in, it is also a very frustrating position to be in, says Allen.

“We can only sell today what was made 10-plus years ago and it’s easy to for everyone to get overexcited about the lack of Springbank right now,” he says. “We have a limited product and it’s frustrating, but demand for whiskey – not just Springbank –has really grown exponentially over the last few years.”

You would think then that Springbank would follow the example of other whisky distilleries and ramp up production, but Springbank has never taken this approach. Why? This is one of those questions that can be best answered with ‘because’.

“We’ve been around since 1828 and still owned by the same family. Our chairman is a pretty conservative person when it comes to business,” says Allen.

Which isn’t to say that his management style is prone to inertia – when he acts, he acts decisively. In 1998, the Scotch Whisky Association decided that two distilleries were not enough to classify Campbeltown as a whisky region, such as Speyside, Islay, Highlands and Lowlands. The association then merged Campbeltown into the Highlands.

But Mr Wright noticed that there were only three operational distilleries in the Lowlands, and with three being the magic number, in 2000 he purchased the old Glengyle Distillery buildings located in Campbeltown. After considerable amount of investment, the modernised Glengyle distillery was completed in 2004, and Campbeltown was restored to being a whisky region.

“As long as you’re making enough money to pay the staff, employ local people, and you invest in the building’s

distillersjournal.info SPRINGBANKWe have a limited product and it’s frustrating, but demand for whiskey has really grown exponentially over the last few years,” David Allen, Springbank AUTUMN 2021 | 47 SPRINGBANK DISTILLERY TOUR

infrastructure, he’s quite happy. Mr Wright is not necessarily interested in expanding, taking over the globe and being in every airport and supermarket across the world.

“We can’t meet the demands of our established markets, it’s a struggle to keep Springbank at our own shop in Campbeltown and we haven’t looked at new market enquires in the last five to six years,” says Allen. “People joke that we’re not the sales team as much as the sales prevention team.

“At Springbank we are in a situation where we pretty much pre-allocate every single case of whisky we have for the entire year,” he says. “We like to look after the markets that have been loyal to us so it would be unfair to take reallocations of whiskey from an established market to give to a brand-new market. We’re in this situation where we get weekly inquiries from importers for new markets asking about Springbank. Unfortunately, I say no – and these guys don’t take it well.”

Springbank is the only Scottish distillery that does 100 percent of the production processing on site, with most done by hand. This means from the malting of the barley through to the bottling; everything is done at Springbank. You have to wonder though, what do they gain from this?

“It’s one of our top unique selling points, but the problem with this approach is if anything goes wrong, we’ve only got ourselves to blame,” says Allen. But he says the advantage is twofold: First, the distillery has complete control over the entire process and second, it’s another opportunity for to ensure that there is more local job creation.

“A big part of our philosophy is to create employment for Campbeltown, which is a small isolated rural community where there isn’t too much in employment opportunities.” By using a ‘many-hands’ approach to production, it makes jobs Crosshill Loch, which was built sometime in the 1860s during Campbeltown’s heydays. While water is often discussed in whisky production and the qualities of it – hard, soft, mineral content, etc – Allen does not see it playing that great of part, believing that there are bigger factors that have an overall impact on flavour.” These include barley, yeast, and the aging casks.

The barley used is mostly from the east coast of Scotland, but Springbank also uses west coast sourced barley for its local barley whiskies. Its distillers have found that with the more severe weather conditions of Scotland’s west coast, local barley is smaller, it is a bit more difficult to work with and has a lower yield of alcohol. More is then needed to produce the same amount of whisky.

So, why do they use as much west coast barley as they can it? Because.

The easy answer would be that there is a difference in flavour between the two barleys. Whisky connoisseurs, masters and sommeliers love this unique whisky and it sells out quickly.

But don’t all their whisky sells quickly, so why go through all the added effort? Because.

After the barley soaks for three days becoming malt, it is conveyed onto a malting floor, with Springbank being one of the very few distilleries still using a malting floor. Workers armed with heavyduty rakes called ‘grabbers’ keep the sixinch-deep barley moving, in what almost looks like a Zen meditation design, processing around 23 tonnes a week.

Until 1973, Springbank’s only product was the single malt Scotch whisky that bears its name. The malt that goes into the fermentation during its production is dried for six hours over a peat fire, then for a further 24 hours over hot air, giving it a mildly peaty character.

Since that same year, some of Springbank’s output each year has been released as Longrow single malt, reviving the identity and character of a Campbeltown distillery which closed in 1896. The malt used in its production is dried for 48 hours over a peat fire giving it a highly peaty flavour.

In addition, for around the last 25-years, the distillery has each year devoted part of its output to the production of Hazelburn single malt, reviving another Campbeltown name and Scotch whisky. The malt used in its production is dried over hot air only, with no peat used at all. With its triple distillation and the lack of peat, it is more similar to Irish whiskies than Scottish.

Springbank has been using yeast from as far back as anyone remembers from a small place called Menstrie, Scotland. Although other distilleries experiment with yeast, that’s not in the character of Springbank.

“We’re very much traditionalists at Springbank and we don’t want to do anything to the process, which is going to differ from how the previous generation made the whiskey,” says Allen. “We won’t change the yeast that we use, or any of the processes because we are worried about changing the character or Springbank. And that’s something we feel quite strongly about is continuing that that character of the whiskey from generation to generation.”

Springbank uses an unusual set-up for distilling, using one wash still and two spirit stills. The wash still has a capacity of 10,000 litres, with the spirit stills having a capacity of 6,000 litres.

And here is where it gets complicated. You might distil twice; you might distil three times. Not Springbank, they distil 2.5 times. This is based on a ratio, which makes perfect sense when it is explained to you, but one minute later and this theory is back to sounding like total confusion.

According to Allen, part of the output from the first distillation is drawn off before the second distillation, then mixed with the feints going into the first distillation. The result is a hybrid “two and

Springbank believes supporting the local community with jobs is just as important as making outstanding whisky

a half times” distillation process which many believe gives Springbank some of its unique character. “People always ask us why and the very honest answer is, we don’t know why, we’re simply following the recipe process used and passed down by word of mouth,” says Allen. “For us, it’s to the point of paranoia, nobody wants to be the person on watch who changes the character of Springbank. So, we adhere to this 2.5 times distillation.”

Or in other words, because.

The spirit is aged primarily in exbourbon and ex-sherry casks, although sometimes Springbank’s distillers get a bit wild and use ex-rum or Calvados casks. Depending on the type of whisky, it’s aged for 10, 12, 15, 18 or 21 years. Although quite a few whiskies are 40% ABV, Springbank’s are 46% ABV except a 12-year-old whisky which is a potent 54% ABV. This whisky is released at its cask strength – its purest natural form – giving consumers more control over how much water to add.

Like all the other operations, Springbank’s whisky is bottled at its plant.

You have to wonder if the professors at the Harvard Business School shake their heads at Springbank. While the distillery doesn’t go out of its way to avoid sales – like playing a game of tag – it does seem to come close to that.

In talking with many distilleries, expansion is seen as the key to their survival. Not at Springbank. Perhaps it was just seeing in Campbeltown when quantity was the most important value – not quality – and what was the end result of that approach. Or, it’s just the way they like doing things. Because. Campbeltown has been described as the nearest place to nowhere and the furthest from anywhere. The nearest large town is Glasgow – 140 miles away by road. As the bird flies or the salmon swims, Ireland is actually closer. Campbeltown is a place where new businesses come in with much fanfare, how they’re going to bring in jobs, etc, and then seem to creep out the door late a night, hoping nobody will notice all the unfulfilled promises.

Not Springbank.

David Allen says that the distillery could be doing more with sustainability; being a bit more green in their approach. However, from almost any perspective, they are the true definition of sustainability, keeping 90 jobs in a struggling community, giving families a reason to stay on the peninsula.

While all the while, making one of the most sought after whiskies. If we all could only find a bottle of Springbank, we could all join in raising a toast to this most uniquely amazing distillery.