About Longrow Red Fresh Pinot Noir Casks Finished 12 Year Old Peated Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Nearly two centuries ago, the town of Campbeltown, located on a narrow peninsula in southwest Scotland, was considered the whisky capital of the world. Passengers arriving by sea at Campbeltown Loch, nestled between Macringan's Point and the rocky island of Davaar, were greeted with the sails and masts of the herring fishing fleet and the smoking chimneys of nearly thirty different distilleries that called Campbeltown home. Two-hundred years later, Campbeltown Loch is considerably quieter and only three chimneys continue to billow smoke — each acting as a beacon for an industry that, at one point, dominated the peninsula.
In 1828, Springbank Distillery was founded on the site of Archibald Mitchell's illicit still in Campbeltown (today, Mitchell's great-great-great-grandson owns the distillery). Within ten years, its whisky was so well-regarded that a blender by the name of Johnnie Walker purchased 118 gallons at 43 pence a gallon.
By the turn of the century — as worldwide demand for Scotch whisky seemed insatiable — distilleries throughout Scotland began cutting corners and outsourcing parts of the distillation process. Springbank Distillery, however, remained true to its Scottish heritage. Today, it remains one of only two distilleries in Scotland to perform every step of the whisky making process — from malting barley to bottling whisky — on the same premises.
Longrow Single Malt Scotch Whisky is a heavily peated single malt Scotch whisky crafted by Springbank Distillery. It is made using Scottish barley, which is malted and dried over a peat flame at the Campbeltown distillery. After the barley has been peated, it is milled and mashed in cast-iron mash tuns that are nearly a century old. The pure spring water used during the mashing process is sourced from Crosshill Loch, which is fed by springs situated on the northern slopes of 1,100-foot tall Beinn Ghuilean Mountain. Once the grains have been mashed, they are slowly fermented over the course of 70 hours — one of the longest fermentation processes in Scotland — before being distilled twice.
After distillation and an initial aging, Longrow Red Fresh Pinot is matured for its final year in Pinot Noir casks sourced from New Zealand. The fourth edition in the Longrow Red series, this unique single malt is bottled at a cask strength of 52.9% ABV — only 9,000 bottles will ever be made available around the world.
The whiskey’s finishing in Pinot Noir casks contributes an aroma of marmalade, strawberry preserves and orange sherbet, along with scents of pipe tobacco. This aroma gives way to notes of tart berries, toffee and honeycomb, and leads to a finish accented by a deep, musty campfire smoke.
About Scotch
Scotch is the most popular whisky in the world and is considered the king of them all! There are five whisky regions in Scotland (six if you count the not officially recognized Islands), and each of them produces spirits with unique properties and distinct tasting notes. (The type of grain used determents the type of the scotch.)
Malt whisky is made of malted barley, and grain whisky uses other grains like corn or wheat. Most of the time, a whisky is blended from different distilleries hence the name blended scotch, but if a malt whisky is produced in a single distillery, we get something extraordinary called a single malt.
Check out our impressive selection of scotch whiskies, find your new favorite in the Top 10 scotch whiskies, or explore our treasury of rare & hard to find scotch whiskies.
