Longrow 18 Year Old is the aged tier of Springbank's peated malt, released in small batches with a cask recipe that changes from year to year. The 2021 edition draws on sherry, bourbon and Chardonnay casks and is bottled at 46% ABV.
About This Whisky
Bottled in September 2021, this release combines spirit from three cask types: 60% sherry, 30% bourbon and 10% Chardonnay. The sherry wood gives dried fruit and depth, the bourbon casks keep it bright, and the white-wine casks add a faint orchard-fruit lift. After eighteen years the peat has settled into a soft, earthy smoke that sits behind the fruit rather than in front of it. It was bottled at 46% ABV.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Soft peat, dried apricot and raisin, with leather, orange peel and a dunnage-warehouse earthiness.
- Palate: Oily and layered, with sherry fruit, honey, gentle smoke and a salty, savoury core.
- Finish: Graceful, with ash, sea salt and spice that lingers.
Serving & Food
Serve it just under room temperature in a tulip glass and let it sit, as older Longrow opens slowly. Water is optional; one or two drops is plenty at 46%. Good company for smoked duck breast, a mature Manchego, or dark chocolate with orange.
How to Enjoy
Campbeltown enthusiasts and peat lovers who prefer their smoke in the background, with fruit and age doing most of the talking.
Product Details
Brand: Longrow / Springbank
Age: 18 years old
Release reference: 2021
Country / region: Campbeltown, Scotland
Format: 700mL
ABV: 46%
Cask composition: 60% sherry, 30% bourbon and 10% Chardonnay casks
About the Distillery
Springbank carries out every stage of whisky making on its own site in Campbeltown, from malting the barley to filling the bottles, with people involved at each step. It also floor-malts all of its barley the traditional way: steeped grain is spread across the malting floor and turned by hand while it germinates, then moved to the kiln. For Longrow, that kiln gives the barley the heaviest dose of peat smoke of the three malts made at the distillery. Springbank does not chill-filter its whisky or add colour, so what reaches the bottle is the cask's own work, brought down to strength with water.