Springbank's big Campbeltown launch will see more whisky on the shelves and stop it being the holy grail

Sales director David Allan says the team at Springbank want as many people as possible to try their iconic whisky. Here's what's special about their newest launch and why it will quell frustrations over secondary sales.

Every so often in Scotch whisky, a brand gains a cult-like reputation. Multiple fans from all over the world vie for limited edition bottles, which are like gold dust.

Tales of old bottles, once freely available, gain urban myth status, and any future launch is fervently anticipated. Queues can form outside the distillery shop and websites crash. For the general whisky lover, these brands become pretty much unattainable. But for the die-hard fans, they’re the holy grail.

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One such brand is Springbank, one of just three distilleries in the Campbeltown region. While its neighbouring Glen Scotia is being grown by owners Loch Lomond into a widely available whisky thanks to a much bigger operation, Springbank is one of the few Scottish distilleries to be completely self-contained and carries out 100 per cent of the production process on site.

This means it doesn’t make a huge amount of liquid - it never really has - so the whisky has always been in short supply.

Score - 83.84

David Allan, director of sales and marketing for Springbank, joined me on The Scotsman’s food and drink podcast Scran to discuss the brand, festival and some new, exciting plans. He explained how traditional the distillery is and why this has resulted in such a sought-after whisky.

“ We were founded back in 1828, and for anybody that's been to visit us, you probably think not much has changed since 1828,” he said.

“We are a very traditional distillery, using very traditional methods to make our whisky in a very hands-on approach. All our malting is done on our malt floors at Springbank, so we don't buy any malted barley.

“The last drop of whisky has come from barley, which has been malted on our own malt floors, which is a space and time and resource, which is why lots of other people don't do it. Then, right through to the production, even the bottling, is carried out on site in Campbelltown.

“We make a fairly small amount of whisky. But I think society's very much more interested in the provenance of what they're eating and drinking and there's more education available and people are finding their way to us. The previous generation didn't make enough whisky for the current demand. Now there's queues out the doors throughout the year, as Springbank is quite a difficult whisky to get hold of.”

As with all distilleries, Springbank makes whisky to be drunk and enjoyed by its fans. But increasingly, the secondary market - the reselling of limited edition releases and even core statements such as the Springbank 10-year-old - means fewer people are opening and drinking the whisky.

Mr Allan explained the "frustration" around this, saying: “The most frustrating thing about Springbank in the last maybe five-plus years is that it's become so scarce and when people outside of your usual whisky circles find something that's limited and scarce, they can flip it and make a profit on it.

“We found that our traditional customers and drinkers are losing out to people who are prepared to queue up overnight for bottles or use software to get bottles online. Then, even in our own supply chain, we have to be wary of people potentially enhancing the price to take advantage of that demand.

“We really want our whisky to be fairly priced for people who will drink it and not be too scared to open it and, hopefully, come back and buy another bottle. That's how a whisky business works. It's repeat customers, so the whisky is no good sitting in somebody's cupboard or tucked in the attic somewhere. We want people to drink it and buy more.”

Despite demand massively outstripping supply, the team have made moves in recent years to ensure people who want to buy Springbank can get a fair crack at the whip. Their Campbeltown Malts Festival bottling, which this year is a cask strength 10-year-old Springbank - are sold in smaller 35cl bottles, meaning the stock goes further. In the past people had queued up to buy the traditional 70cl bottles only to find that by mid-morning on the first day, they were all gone.

There is also another exciting release coming this year, which Mr Allan hopes will mean there’s more Springbank on the shelves.

“We’re going to launch a new whisky as part of the Springbank core range,” he said. “The Springbank 10-year-old is really our flagship whisky, but we're going to introduce a Springbank 5-year-old, 100 proof. This means it is bottled at 57.1 per cent ABV, and for the first time in our core range, the maturation of this whisky will be 100 per cent bourbon cask.

“Normally the other whiskies - the ten, the 12 and 15 - are usually a mixture of bourbon and sherry casks, or all sherry in the case of the 15-year-old. We thought it'd be really cool to bottle a younger Springbank in bourbon to really showcase the character of the spirit.

“It is like the 10-year-old, but more amplified, with the volume turned up. It’s a great whisky and it means there's going to be a bit more Springbank in the market, and hopefully on the shelf for people to come across and be able to buy a bottle, and not be too scared about finishing it and not knowing where the next bottle's coming from.”

Find out more about Springbank and their festival events by searching for Scran wherever you get your podcasts or visiting their website.