Reb Mordechai Reviews

2026-10-15T21:45:15.830+03:00

Glen Scotia 12-Year-Old First-Fill Bourbon Barrel 46% abv

Glen Scotia 12-Year-Old	Data Sheet
Owner:	Loch Lomond Group
Barcode:	5016840241218
Price:	₪239, £45 in the UK
Alcohol:	46% abv
Age	12 Years
Cask Type:	First-Fill Bourbon Barrels
Non-Chill-Filtered:	Yes
Natural Colour:	It states it on the back label.
Israeli Importer:	Eurostandart Ltd. ירוסטנדרט בע"מ
Kashrus Issues:	None
Kosher Certification:	*Badatz Chug Chatam Sofer Petah Tikva*

I’d heard so many good things about this Glen Scotia 12 and was really looking forward to trying it. I watched quite a few YouTube videos on this whisky and all gave it glowing reviews. The problem for me was that it wasn’t being sold in Israel and being a core-range and mid-priced Single Malt, including this in my limited list of UK bought special bottles that I am going to have to pay Customs on at Ben Gurion airport when I shlepp them in, in place of say, a Cask Strength Single Cask Edition or Distillery Exclusive, was never going to happen.

So, I was delighted when, browsing some Israeli online stores one day, I came across this Glen Scotia 12 for sale at Mashkaot Mendleson in Ra’anana. I immediately ordered two bottles online. Then I heard nothing for a week. It took a phone-call to the main office but a package containing the two bottles duly arrived the next day.

The February 2026 Private Tour of the Distillery

I have already related the story of our Springbankdistillery visit back in February 2026 where I had booked a regular distillery tour for my three sons and me, that amazingly turned into a private tour and much more.

Well, that very afternoon we also had a tour and warehouse tasting at Glen Scotia booked. This one however had been arranged as a favour by a manager at the Loch Lomond Group, and (unlike Springbank) it was planned as a private tour from the start.

Glen Scotia: The Most Relaxed, Friendly and Welcoming Distillery in the Whole of Scotland

The plan was to have a picnic lunch by the harbour in Campbeltown and then go on to Glen Scotia at the arranged time of 2:00pm. However, we had just laid out all the food on the picnic table when (and those who have been to Scotland will know this is all too common), the heavens suddenly opened up and it started pouring down. We quickly gathered up our stuff and ran back to our rented car. My boys wanted to know where we were going to find shelter to eat our packed-lunch. They were soaking wet, hungry and irritable. I told them not to worry as I had a plan.

We drove straight to the distillery, a full hour early. Telling the boys to wait in the car for a moment, I ran to the main entrance, pushed open the door and introduced myself to the young woman behind the counter as Reb Mordechai, booked for the private tour at 2:00pm. I apologised for being so early and explained that we needed somewhere to eat our lunch. Without a moment’s hesitation and giving me a warm smile, she asked whether we would like to use the large oak table in the visitors’ centre.

I gratefully accepted. Then, with a big grin on my face, I walked back out into the rain and told my sons to follow me inside with the food bag.

Why had I been so confident they would let us eat in the visitors’ centre? Because almost exactly the same thing had happened before!

Hector McMurchy, the Assistant Distillery Manager,

I had first visited Glen Scotia two years earlier with my wife and parents. That time however, we had just finished our tour and we now wanted to eat lunch, and once again it was pelting down outside. Hector McMurchy, the Assistant Distillery Manager, who had been our guide for the warehouse cask tastings, overheard us discussing our predicament and very kindly offered us the same oak table. Even though the tour was over, he stayed and chatted with us while we ate. Other members of staff joined in as well, and I remember taking note of just how laid back, “chilled” and friendly everyone was, both to us and to each other.

It seemed that nothing had changed in those two years. Twenty minutes into the meal and my sons were already happily chatting with the distillery staff. The friendly atmosphere was quite contagious.

By the time we had eaten and tidied up, it was time for the tour. Our guide, Clair, asked us to follow her around the corner and into the mill house for the beginning of tour.

Clair was an excellent guide who really knew how to engage with my three sons. She made them feel completely at ease and chatted with them freely in her melodic Scottish accent, while I happily stayed quiet in the background.

For me, the private tour at Springbank and the honour they had bestowed upon me was a rare privilege and the highlight of the day. My sons, never having even visited a distillery before, let alone Springbank, didn’t really grasp what a privilege it had been to be treated as VIPs that morning. For them, the highlight was Clair and the wonderfully friendly atmosphere at Glen Scotia.

The Warehouse Tasting Session

After the distillery tour we made our way to the warehouse, the venue where the tasting session was being held. It was bitterly cold in there but we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, sampling the contents of both peated and unpeated Ex-Bourbon Barrels of various ages. After purchasing a couple of Distillery Exclusives and having a chat about Glen Scotia whisky with some distillery visitors from Scandinavia, we said goodbye to Clair and the other workers and just caught Mincha in time before heading back up north to our rented accommodation, everyone very happy.

The Glen Scotia 12-Year-Old 46% abv, Review

Peated or Un-Peated – That is the Question

As we experienced first-hand in the warehouse, Glen Scotia Distillery produces both peated and unpeated single malt whisky. This 12-Year-Old is in the latter category. Their malted barley arrives weekly from the East coast of Scotland, near Montrose from Glenesk Maltings facility. Incidentally, Glenesk Maltings stands on the grounds of the now dismantled Glenesk distillery which closed in 1985.

The Weird Orange Colour Of the Glen Scotia 12-Year-Old

So, before the actual review, we have to address the issue of the Glen Scotia 12’s very odd colour. I have no doubt that it is Natural Colour, as the label says so. The question that many whisky reviewers, both in print and on YouTube, have been asking is: How can a 100% Ex-Bourbon Barrel Single Malt, presented as Natural Colour, have such a dark, orangey, caramel-toffee colour that, if truth be told, looks uncomfortably like added E150a Caramel Colouring?

Glen Scotia Single Cask First-Fill Ex-Bourbon is a typical Pale Straw Colour

Compared to other First-Fill Ex-Bourbon matured Single Malts under 18 years old that are bottled at Natural Colour and they are, almost without exception, a straw yellow to pale gold, like a Chardonnay tint. So, what’s going on here?

Some have suggested that Glen Scotia uses heavily charred barrels (and they’d have to be REALLY heavily charred to be this dark), which would seem to correspond to tasting notes of caramelised brown sugar, as some reviewers have described this whisky. If so, why is there no mention of these special casks anywhere? In any case, surely heavy charring would make the whisky dark brown, not orange-brown? In my opinion, heavily charred casks can only be part of the story, even if true.

The Dramface website recently published a multi-reviewer article of this Glen Scotia 12, and although a couple of the reviewers questioned the strange colour, none offered an explanation.

One reviewer wrote:

“And the colour—well, that’s the first thing that hits you. Deep, rich, and totally unexpected from bourbon casks. It’s the kind of hue that makes you double-check the label, just to confirm it really hasn’t been tampered with.”

Another wrote:

“The first thing I noticed upon opening the box is how dark it is for a bourbon cask whisky that hasn’t had any artificial colour added.”

Whisky in the 6, a Canadian whisky YouTube channel, at least raises the question of the colour, but then quickly moves on.

The No Nonsense Whisky YouTube channel goes further and says outright that it looks to him like a whisky with E150a Caramel Colouring added, but acknowledges that the label states Natural Colour, and so leaves it as a mystery.

Being the person I am, I wasn’t going to let this go. I needed to find the reason for this weird colour, so I wrote to my contacts at both the Loch Lomond Group and Glen Scotia Distillery.

To my disappointment, I heard nothing from either of them for more than a month. I let it slide over the Chagim (the festival period between Rosh Hashana and Sukkos), but straight afterwards I decided to send both of them a gentle reminder.

In the meantime, I asked AI for an explanation. It came up with all kinds of far-fetched suggestions, which I knocked down one by one. Eventually it conceded that the colour did look suspiciously like added E150a caramel colouring, and suggested that this was why nobody had replied to me. Perhaps, it said, it was a corporate decision not to answer such inconvenient questions. Perhaps, this AI suggested, it might have been better not to ask at all, as I risked spoiling my long-standing good relations with the company.

I ignored the AI and sent a WhatsApp message to Michael Henry, manager of Loch Lomond Distillery. Two blue ticks told me he had read it, but even after a few hours there was still no reply. I actually started to wonder whether the AI was right after all. Perhaps some questions aren’t worth asking?

Then, about four hours after I had messaged Michael Henry, I received an email from Ashley Smith, Glen Scotia’s Master Blender:

Hi Mordechai,

Thank you for your query regarding the Glen Scotia 12YO – Michael has kindly forwarded on your email as I have been made aware you are still awaiting a response.

Apologies for the delay - we are presently over aging our 12yo expression. This is because of the output of the distillery back in 2014, where we were producing circa 80 – 100k L per annum. As such, there is limited 2014 stock to select from. As per SWA rules, the age statement on the bottle denotes the youngest whisky in the bottle, but we are not limited to which older stock is used. As time goes on more stock will be available to me to allow me to closer match the 12yo age statement, and as a result the colour of each batch will vary. Previous batches have used older liquid with medium char casks, such as those used with our Victoriana expression.

Kind regards,

Ashley

So, there it was, the mystery solved. Because Glen Scotia produced so little spirit back in 2014, there is only limited 12-Year-Old stock to draw on, so the current 12-Year-Old contains substantially older whisky than the official age statement. Incidentally, this is not the first time this has happened within the industry. I remember that in the early 2000s, Glendronach distillery’s core-range Glendronach 12-Year-Old actually contained a substantial percentage of much older whiskies. It was reported that these whiskies were between 18 and 24 years old!

So, using some casks of Glen Scotia whiskies substantially older than 12 years would definitely account for that deep orange colour. I would imagine that as more 12-Year-Old stock becomes available, the colour of future batches will likely become paler.

And as for the AI’s cynical theory of a corporate cover-up? It turned out to be complete nonsense. Sometimes the simplest explanation is that people are often busy working on deadlines and projects and it’s worth just sending them a gentle reminder.

Where Has All the “Funk” Gone?

The back label on the box states that the whisky has a typical Campbeltown “maritime influence” and the back label on the bottle talks about “fresh sea air”.

Some reviewers simply mention in passing that they can detect the classic Campbeltown “Funk” - that coastal spray pungent character in the Glen Scotia 12. I have indeed picked up this Campbeltown Funk in quite a few Glen Scotias including Glen Scotia 10 (See my review here), as well as in some Single Cask Editions I’ve tried. However, in all honestly, no matter how much I tried, I could not pick up even a hint of sea-spray with this 12-Year-Old, despite (as I said), many saying that they can.

I still maintain the theory I have held for many years that coastal/maritime notes of a whisky come exclusively from the phenols in the malted barley. I can only conclude that the barley they use for the 10-Year-Old is not 0 PPM phenols or that the barley is picking up phenols from the storage siloes that previously contained peated malted barley. That still does not explain why the same thing isn’t happening to the 12-Year-Old.

So, we now have another mystery. Where’s the Campbeltown Funk gone? This, I’m afraid will have to remain a mystery as it’s just opinion against many others that there is no Funk.

The Hechsher

Seeing as this Glen Scotia 12 is 100% Ex-Bourbon matured there are, as far as I know, no kashrus issues with this expression. However, it is interesting that the Israeli importers of Glen Scotia, that is Eurostandart Ltd - (ירוסטנדרט) have chosen to pay for a “Chug Chatam Sofer Petah Tikva” kosher certification.

Badatz Chug Chatam Sofer Petah Tikva

I’d guess they purchased a hechsher from this organisation because it was the cheapest offer they found in order to obtain the “Ishur Rabbanut Rashi” label which entitles this product to be served in Rabbinate restaurants and hotels in Israel.

I just thought I’d mention that there has been much talk recently about Badatz Chug Chatam Sofer Petah Tikva. For many years, some prominent Rabbonim have put this certification into the same category as those who did not meet the AKO standards and therefore they advised that its products should generally be avoided.

However, I read that after appointing a new head in 2024, namely Rav Pinchas Leibush Padwa, the Av Beis Din of Shomrei Hadas in Antwerp, there has been some signs of improvement in the organisation’s standards. I have not seen any tachlas announcements made so it’s worth asking your own reliable Orthodox Rav about this.

Packaging and Art Work

Packaging is the standard Loch Lomond Group bottle in quality cardboard box. The Royal Blue colour of the box and on the label is, shall we say, quite striking. However, the pale gold letters on that blue background makes it very difficult to read the text. Moreover, the text on the bottle label completely wraps around the bottle and the only way to read it is to repeatedly turn the bottle left and right multiple times. It also means that I could not photograph the text in one go which was annoying.

You try reading this!

I used AI and three photos from different angles to subscribe the full text:

“Glen Scotia 12 Year Old is a great example of our distillery’s signature style – full of big Campbeltown character and maritime influence. Aged exclusively in first fill bourbon barrels, this single malt opens with fresh sea air, honeyed vanilla, and hints of exotic tropical fruit. On the palate, wonderful layers of caramelized sugar, tangy citrus and vibrant pineapple, balanced by subtle toasted oak. The finish is long and warming, with gentle notes of cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg spice.”

Still, there is no doubt that due to its very distinct colour, this expression really stands out on the shelf.

The Tasting Review

Please note that these tasting notes were written before I knew that a good percentage of the whisky in this bottle was considerably older than 12 Years.

The Aroma

Apple Strudel, sultanas and cinnamon

Rich mahogany varnished wood, typical of a much older whisky.

There is a definite smell of fresh white Shabbos candle wax.

This Glen Scotia is really honey forward. I’m talking multiple types of honey as well.
There’s a fruity style honey like, Orange Blossom. Then there’s a Heather-Earthy Honey like Manuka Honey. This leads me on to waxy honeys in the form of Beeswax and Honeycomb slices.

Mouth Feel

Rich, waxy with sweet Bourbon notes.

Coats the mouth with sweet Beeswax honey and spices.

Tasting

Rich, sweet Bourbon, woody and spicy. Sultanas in syrup.

Sweet Manuka honey and butter on toast.

Apple Strudel, sultanas and cinnamon.

There’s a soft menthol spirit flavour on the palate as it goes down that I did not pick on the nose. Not toothpaste but chewing gum in nature.

Finish

For a 12-Year-Old, the finish is remarkably long, mimicking a whisky a lot older than 12 years. The richness of the finish particularly reminds me of the now discontinued Tullibardine 20. Those multi-layered honey flavours linger in the mouth along with pastries and sweet wood spices. (Editor’s note: Let me remind you all that I wrote that last sentence weeks before I found out that in fact, this 12-Year-Old actually did contain whiskies a lot older than 12 years).

Conclusion

Now that we know that first batches contain a percentage of much older whiskies and by Glen Scotia’s own admission, this might not be the case in future batches, my advice is to buy now before current batches run own. You are getting a whisky that has all the character of a 20-Year-Old for the cost of a 12-Year-Old.

Is this a contender for my Whisky of The Year 2026? Yes, absolutely.

Recommendation: Buy this! Don’t hesitate. Buy it now! You’ll love it!

Springbank 5-Year-Old 100° Proof (57.1% ABV) review

2026-08-26T16:04:10.704+03:00

Springbank 5-Year-Old 100° Proof (57.1% ABV) review

Springbank 5-Year-Old 100° Proof*	Data Sheet
Distillery Owners	J&A Mitchell company
Barcode	610854010959
Released	August 2025
Distillery Price	£52
Retail Price	£60-80 ($100-120 in the USA*)
Available in Israel	No.
Alcohol Percentage (abv)	100° Proof (57.1%)
Bottle Volume (cl)	70
Cask Maturation	Ex-Bourbon Barrels
Non-Chill-Filtered	Yes
Natural Colour	Yes
Kashrus Status	No Kashrus issues
Kashrus certification	None

* Note that in the United States, the same expression is named Springbank 5-Year-Old 114° Proof.

OK (drumroll or perhaps eyeroll), now, finally we get to the actual Springbank review…

Packaging

None! The bottle is sold as is.

As far as I can tell, the Springbank artwork has only gone through three major changes and a few tweaks since it was first bottled as Single Malt way back in the 1970s. At first, it came in a distinct pear-shaped bottle, then in the 1980s and 90s they switched to round “dumpy” bottles with the labels looking like old parchment paper. In the 2000s they changed the bottle shape yet again to a more generic whisky bottle shape. Throughout this time, they have been experimenting with various styles of label artwork but the signature Gothic "S" has remained common to all the designs.

Whilst so many spirits companies have recently been rebranding in what I consider to be counterintuitive to marketing goals, to a generic “caricature of a whisky bottle” branding where every Single Malt on the shelf looks the same, Springbank remains staunchly proud of its individualist branding.

Why does Springbank refer to this as their “100° Proof” expression?

“Proof” is the term for the way that alcohol strength was estimated in the British Empire from around the 16th-century. The process entails mixing said liquid alcohol spirit with gunpowder and trying to set it alight. When the alcohol level was strong enough to allow the damp gunpowder to ignite with a blue flame then it was said to be 'proved'. The test itself though was far from precise. How readily the powder lit depended on such factors as how long the spirit had soaked into the gunpowder as well as the room’s temperature and humidity.

The phrase “100° Proof” did not come about until the invention of the “Sikes Hydrometer” in the early 1800s. This instrument consists of a brass metal stem with a bulb roughly in the middle and a weight at one end. A scale of 0–10 was engraved on the upper stem. By means of various weights, the 0-10 scale was used to calculate the “Proof”.

The Sikes Hydrometer uses the Archimedes' principle which states that “a floating object displaces a weight of fluid equal to its own weight” to measure the density of the liquid. The alcohol to be tested is poured into a long test tube and the hydrometer is then floated inside it. Because alcohol is less dense than water, the instrument sinks deeper into the test tube, the higher the alcohol concentration is. The “Proof” measurement was then read off the scale.

An alcohol that measured 8.4 on the 0-10 etched scale when a “50 weight” disc was placed on the stem of the hydrometer at room temperature of about 68°F (20°C) was said to be “100° Proof”. Above 8.4 was termed “overproof” and below this was “underproof”.

Later, the invention of mercury hydrometers made of glass have the actual “Proof” measurements directly etched along the stem that range from 20° to 120° Proof. These are to be found in most distillery labs today.

“70° Proof” Became the Minimum Legal Requirement for Whisky

During World War I, in an attempt to bring some standards into the spirits industry and prevent cheating by over-diluting spirits with water, the British Government instructed the Customs and Excise department to enforce 70° Proof as the minimum legal strength to which distillers were permitted to dilute their whisky. This was, however, only formally codified into UK law under the Customs and Excise Act of 1952. In 1980, the British Government formally adopted the European "abv" (alcohol by volume) scale to rate spirits and the minimum legal standard became 40% abv, the equivalent of the old 70° Proof.

Proof Statements Pre-1980

Now, up until 1980, the Scotch Whisky Industry ranked their whisky using the “Proof” scale.

The overwhelming majority of Scotch Whisky was (and still is today) bottled at the minimum allowed "70° Proof" (40% abv). A whisky bottled at "80° Proof" (45.7% abv) was considered of a higher quality. It is no coincidence that at around the 80° (46% abv) Proof level sits the point where there is generally enough ethanol in the spirit to hold the fatty acids and esters in the whisky, which give it more intense flavour. It is also the chemical tipping point where, even when the whisky is chilled or has a splash of water, soda or ice added, it tends to stay clearer in the glass without any intervention from aggressive filtration techniques. This is why we see so many so called “Integrity” bottlings that are "Non-Chill Filtered" being bottled at around 46% abv today. Back then, these Integrity bottlings only accounted for about 5% of even the Single Malt market (considered up-market when compared to Blended Scotch Whisky). However, at the beginning of the 21st century when spirits companies finally began to realise that there is a growing enthusiasts’ market for integrity bottlings all around the world, that figure has risen closer to 20-25% of the Single Malt Whisky market.

Then we have the top tier whiskies bottled at “100° Proof” (57.1% abv) or even higher. Back in the 1980s and 90s, these whiskies accounted for less than 1% of the market. Only a very few distilleries bottled anything at 100° Proof. Back then, the only way to get hold of whisky at Cask Strength (or near Cask Strength) was if you were lucky enough to live within driving distance of a distillery or you purchased directly from the handful of Scottish based independent bottlers from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail, Wm Cadenhead and Douglas Laing & Co (only from 1998).

Incidentally, it sounds incredible with all our strict regulations today, but many pre-1980s bottlings sold in the UK didn’t even have a “Proof” alcohol statement printed on the labels at all as there was no legal requirement to do so back then. That’s why you’ll see bottles from the 1960s and 70s on auction sites (in what seems like an act of vandalism) having the whisky’s abv stamped on the front label by the auctioneers in order to conform with today’s legal requirement to state the alcohol volume of whisky at point of sale.

During the 1980s, many Scotch Whisky labels printed both Proof and abv. The “Proof” was eventually dropped altogether in the 1990s.

Bottled at 100° Proof

Back in the 1980s and 90s, Springbank and Glenfarclas stood out as the only distilleries to regularly, year-in-year-out bottle at close to Cask Strength with an entire series of Springbanks at 100° Proof (57.1% abv) and Glenfarclas, with its “105” (60%) expression. You could also occasionally obtain other Single Malts at this proof level from Macallan, with their 10-Year-Old “100° Proof” (57% abv), Highland Park 8, Aberlour, with their 105° Proof (60%) expression, with regular releases from 1997 and annual batches of Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength bottled at around 100° Proof. However, if anyone truly deserves to use the phrase “100° Proof” it’s Springbank, for pure consistency of output over the decades.

Why They Were Forced to Stop Selling the 5-Year-Old 100° Proof in the United States

For those of you living in the United States, you may have noticed that the Springbank 5-Year-Old 100° Proof has disappeared from the shelves and has been replaced by the Springbank 5-Year-Old 114° Proof. What’s the difference between these two releases? As far as I can tell, only the name. The “114° Proof” is the exact same liquid as the “100° Proof” being sold in the rest of the global market.

To explain this name change we need to look at the United States Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau that mandates a legal labelling system where the term “proof” is not just a marketing buzzword as it is in the UK, but is strictly regulated and legally defined as “double the abv”. So, labelling a Scotch Whisky as "100° Proof" in the US would falsely imply the whisky was actually only 50% abv! Therefore, in order to stay compliant with US Federal Labelling Guidelines, Springbank was forced to change the name to “114° Proof”, for the North American market. This works out as approximately 57% abv. Sounds bureaucratic and pedantic? Yes, it does to me too.

Springbank’s 2½ Times Distillation

As mentioned in my first article on Springbank some weeks ago, Springbank is lightly peated and distilled 2½ times. But what exactly does 2½ times mean?

To understand what 2.5 times distillation is all about, it helps to know that almost all Single Malt Scotch Whisky is distilled only twice, while only a few, particularly in the Lowlands (following the Irish tradition), are distilled three times.

Springbank (doing things differently yet again) kind of splits the difference between the two distillation traditions by “recycling” a portion of the liquid so that some of it goes through the stills twice, and some of it goes through three times. You could call this a hybrid version of the two traditions.

What this means is that, unlike most other distilleries in Scotland that have a Wash Still and a smaller Spirit Still for “Double Distillation”, Springbank houses three stills: a large Wash Still at just over 10,000 litres and two identically sized stills at roughly 6,000 litres. One of these they term the “Feints Still” and the second, the “Spirit Still”.

For the geeks amongst us, here is the exact rundown of how Springbank achieves this hybrid process:

1. The First Distillation (Wash Still):

The fermented beer-like liquid (wash) is distilled once. This creates a rough spirit called low wines (around 20-25% abv).

2. The Split:

The low wines are split into two paths by volume, a roughly 20% / 80% ratio.

o Path A (20%): Some low wines go directly to the final still.

o Path B (80%): The rest of the low wines go into a middle still, or “Feints Still”, as they term it.

3. The Second Distillation (Feints Still):

The liquid in Path B is distilled a second time. This produces a cleaner spirit called feints (around 30-35% abv).

4. The Final Distillation (Spirit Still):

The final still is charged with a mix of the once-distilled liquid (Path A) and the twice-distilled liquid (Path B). This mixture is distilled together (starting around 76% abv and tapering down to 60% abv). The final New Make Spirit collected from this run averages out to 71% to 72% abv when it flows to the spirit receiver.

Springbank 5-Year-Old 100° Proof Review

Appearance

Pouring a dram into my Springbank engraved Glencairn produces a complete ring of golden beads circling around the entire inside of the glass. These beads are a clear indication of high abv. The bubbles dissipate only after a few minutes.

The liquid has an unusual slightly rusty iron brown looking straw colour.

I start by tilting the Glencairn at about 20° and then slowly turn it in a full circle so that I end up coating the entire insides. Then I turn the glass upright again and examine the thickness and speed of the tears as they start to fall. This Springbank produces lovely thick oily tears that stick to the insides of the glass showing clear signs of a high barley fat content.

On The Nose

The nose actually reminds me somewhat of the Bruichladdich Organic Barley 2012 with its clean coastal peat, fusile (industrial, tractor) with the typical smells you find on a barley farm. This Springbank is heavier than an Ardnahoe and lighter than an Ardnamurchan but in the same kind of ball-park. As I said, about the same intensity and weight as a Bruichladdich, only this Campbeltown whisky, unlike Bruichladdich, is slightly peated.

That peat leads you down the path to a subtle hint of coastal sea air, malt vinegar with a beach bonfire in the far-off distance. (This coastal note intensifies after the bottle has been opened for a few weeks). This is what they call the famous “Campbeltown Funk” as exhibited in Springbank, Glengyle and Glen Scotia.

Only after a few seconds do you become aware of some nice soft white and yellow ripe fruits. Sweet Ripe Melon, a touch of peach perhaps, some cooked pineapple, grapefruit definitely, and sweet green sulphate tarnished copper pipe. After this you are served up a slice of slightly dry vanilla cake with pineapple rings in jelly, lemon and sweet white pepper.

This is without doubt a beautifully put together single malt. It has those endearing off notes that have gained Springbank so many fans, but a word of warning. Those who are used to the Speyside over-engineered whisky should give Springbank a wide berth. What I would describe as charming, rustic, copper pipe and slightly sour fruit notes would be described as dirty whisky with off-notes, and these are just the kind of things other distilleries would quietly blend out.

On The Palate

Mouthfeel is just as those oily tears indicated - quite superb. The natural malty barley oils envelop the entire tongue and cheeks.

There’s sweet barley sugar, milk fudge, white and yellow apples, a squeeze of lemon juice, dry vanilla cake with some wood sawdust and spices on the finish.

Finish

In all honesty, it is missing some complexity and staying power at the end as it fades all too quickly into the distance, no doubt due to its young age, but boy, there's no denying that it’s one delicious dram as it slides down the throat.

Conclusion

I bought two bottles at the distillery when I was there back in February 2026 and am just draining the last few drops of the first bottle now.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my time with this Springbank 5-Year-Old 100° Proof. I will definitely try and get some more of this, the next time I’m in the UK.

Judged on its own merits, despite it being noticeably young whisky, it's still charming stuff and highly recommended for those who are looking for something rustic and off the beaten path.

I’ve read some reviews that say that it’s not classic Campbeltown Springbank. I disagree.

Lack of “Campbeltown Funk”?

Quite a few prominent whisky reviewers have complained that they could not find any “Campbeltown Funk” in this Springbank 5-Year-Old. I think they are ever so slightly exaggerating. My theory is that they are so used to the more common Springbank with its marriage of Ex-Bourbon and Ex-Sherry cask maturation that it is this which they are missing in this exclusively Ex-Bourbon matured Single Malt and not the “Campbeltown Funk”. At least according to my olfactory receptors and taste buds, that coastal, briny sour fruit note is quite definitely present and (as I’ve mentioned before) becomes even more prominent a few weeks after opening.

I’d even challenge this further. Those reviewers that are calling this Springbank 5-Year-Old “not the classic Springbank” have, in my opinion, got it totally “affuch” - backwards. This isn't less Springbank-y, it's more, because with this exclusively Ex-Bourbon Barrel expression, there are fewer cask related flavours getting in the way between your nose and the malted barley spirit.

I’ve also read some reviews where they say that this expression is as close as you'll get to the Springbank new-make spirit. I’d agree with this because I don’t think they mean that it’s under-matured, even at the admittedly young age of 5 years. This Springbank is simply exhibiting the naked distillery house-style with its fancy cask coat off. This pure young version is the more honest portrait of the flavours which the stills at Springbank actually create, and calling it "not real Springbank", (as some have stated) is in my opinion, a bit like calling someone unrecognisable because you've only ever seen them at a chasuna, all dressed up in a suit and hat, rather than with his jacket off, his shirt sleeves rolled up and his Tefillin on, on a Tuesday morning.

To all those who are complaining that it’s missing the “Campbeltown Funk” or is too young to be considered a “real” Springbank, I say, “Thanks, keep talking!” I’m so grateful for your lukewarm reviews as it will hopefully discourage the usual Springbank buying frenzy and flipping, and leave more for us whisky lovers.

The Glen Scotia 12 – “The Big Blue”

In total contrast and at the risk of dropping a big spoiler alert, I recently purchased two bottles of the new Glen Scotia 12 in its garish blue box and label that just arrived in Israel. Everyone, including the distillery itself, lists the coastal notes as a prominent feature of this Single Malt, yet I could find no trace of it. Ironically, in my review of the Glen Scotia 10, the 12-Year-Old’s poorer sister, I stated that the “Campbeltown Funk” coastal note was very apparent.

For a second opinion, I invited my good friend over to try this new 12-Year-Old and felt vindicated when, without prompting in any way, he also mentioned that he could not detect any of the usual sour briny notes of a typical Campbeltown whisky and that there was a subtle peatiness that was mainland in style rather than coastal. (I understood what he meant even though Glen Scotia officially state that the 12-Year-Old is unpeated). That is not to say that the Glen Scotia 12 is not a lovely delicious Single Malt, it is; just that it seems to be missing that “Campbeltown Funk”.

Availability

You have to be somewhat lucky and determined in order to obtain this Single Malt, even in the UK. Springbank claim that they release this in quarterly small batches. Despite this, they do seem to go in and out of stock all the time. Case in point, it is currently Out-Of-Stock both at ‘Master of Malt’ and ‘The Whisky Exchange’, but as of the time of writing this, it is in-stock at ‘The Whisky Shop’ and ‘Royal Mile Whiskies’ although they are limiting sales to one bottle per purchase. That makes sense to me. I’m happy to see that prices are not inflated.

Of course, you could go to a hand full of high-end specialist retail shops like Milroy’s, ‘Hard To Find Whiskies’ but there’s no guarantee they’ll have it in stock either and even if they do, prices will be considerably higher than the RRP, that’s for sure!

My advice - Don’t pay more than 20% over the RRP. It’s great whisky but not that great that you should start paying “big bucks” for it. Better to go for the Glen Scotia 12 in my opinion.

Investment Prospects

Unlike other Springbanks, this 5-Year-Old seems unlikely ever to become a worthwhile investment for those who like to hoard Springbanks. This one is a drinker! I could be proved wrong though…

The Springbank Distillery Tour and “The Cage”

2026-08-14T00:34:54.759+03:00

Springbank Part 3: The Distillery Tour and “The Cage”

The First Apology: I am really sorry for the late arrival of this review. I have been working very hard, in collaboration with an Israeli Rav, on an exciting project to get an article published in a prestigious halacha publication. I have completed my side of the article and now it’s over to the Rav. We have obviously accumulated far more information than the strict maximum length of this article allows, so after it’s published, Be’ezras Hashem, I want to produce another book/booklet with everything in there.

The Second Apology: This article was supposed to be split up into three sections: The Springbank Distillery Tour, The Story of “The Cage” and then finally, the actual review of Springbank 5 Year-Old 100° Proof. However. yet again, the article has grown so large that it needs to be split into two. So, at the risk of annoying some of you even further, this article, Part Three, now covers just the Springbank tour and “The Cage” and the actual review (which is already 90% completed) will be, Be'ezrat Hashem, the fourth and final part, that I'll upload very soon, Bli Neder.

The Springbank Distillery Tour

Back in February 2026, I had been invited by no less than three Scottish distilleries to come and talk to their staff about all things “Kosher Whisky”: which types of Single Malts to avoid and which to recommend to Orthodox Jewish visitors to their distillery. This highly successful part of my Scotland visit is a story in itself but not for this article as I really must concentrate on the subject at hand, that is Springbank whisky.

So, my flight was booked and I was ready to go. However, my eldest son was between completing his Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology and starting his first day in a clinic, so, seeing as he enjoys a good dram and has helped me multiple times in my tasting notes for my whisky reviews, I invited him to come with me to Scotland. But then, my two other sons heard about my offer and despite what I thought were their many commitments, they also wanted to come with. So, what started out as a “father-son” time holiday, ended up being “the three brothers’ get-together” trip to Scotland with yours truly as their tour-guide.

We travelled up to Scotland on Motzei Shabbos and arrived in the morning of Sunday. I had pre-booked ferry tickets to take us to the Isle of Arran and visit Lochranza distillery. Then from there, we took the ferry to the Kintyre peninsula, where we settled into our rental.

The original itinerary for the Monday was a private tour and then for me to speak at a distillery on Islay but due to a problem with one of the Islay ferries being taken out of service, the ferry company was not accepting any private cars onboard, only lorries. So, I had no choice but to cancel the Islay part of the trip. As I’d already booked a wonderful self-catering place for the four of us near the Kennacraig ferry terminal to Islay along the A83 on the Kintyre peninsula, I decided to take the boys down to the nearby Campbeltown distilleries instead.

I had already received an invitation to Glen Scotia distillery for a private tour and warehouse tasting session on Monday afternoon, so I decided to book online for four adults for the first tour of the day for both Springbank and after that, its sister distillery, Glengyle to fill the morning up.

As I always do when booking a distillery tour, I follow this up with an email to the distillery, about two weeks before, explaining who I am and what I do, requesting that, if possible, they could kindly provide us with only “kosher” Whisky tasting samples during the tour, that is, no whiskies with Sherry/Wine etc. maturation. In addition, I asked if I could take a “butchers” inside their warehouse and take the opportunity to ask the warehouse manager a few questions about their Sherry Cask usage and ordering practices. This would include the Spanish Bodegas they order from, their specific Sherry Seasoning requirements, Sherry types, cask sizes and wood types and so on. I was slightly disappointed at the time that I never heard back from them. Nevertheless, as it turned out, they certainly had taken note.

Despite there being a group of Koreans already queuing up outside the distillery visitors centre at 9am when we arrived, a young woman suddenly came out of the building, heading straight for me. She smiled at us and said “Aye, you must be the Kosher Whisky Rabbi! Welcome. Finlay will be out in a minute”.

Sure enough, a few minutes later out came Finlay, who singled my three sons and me out with a warm smile and a firm handshake. “Follow me!” he said, as he led us away from the Koreans, whom I had assumed we were going to be sharing a tour with. We followed him around the corner and into the warmth of the malting building. Finlay was the kind of person who instantly charms, and in a genuine way. The Scotch Whisky industry does seem to be unusually blessed with many such larger-than-life characters.

It seemed that we had been upgraded to a private tour at no extra cost. We were then treated to a wonderfully in-depth, very personal tour of the distillery from the malting-room, to the mash-room and then to the still-room. I knew that one of the things that makes Springbank so unique and special is the fact that everything is done manually as it was 150 years ago, by using manual tools and by consulting hand-written tables and charts on the wall. Not an electric-powered tool in sight, let alone a computer! However, actually witnessing these things as we went round made me internalise this point that nothing has really changed since the 19^th century, except the faces of the workers.

The Peat Oven

The Malting Floor

Finlay standing next to the Original Porteus Flour Mill

Finlay explains how Springbank's "Computer" works

During the tour, although Finlay concentrated mainly on my kids (which I really appreciate), he was kind and patient enough to answer almost all of my questions, and those he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) answer, he assured me he’d refer them to someone else who could discuss them with me later.

A bit of Springbank Dark Humour

Springbank’s Sherry Cask Practices

As regards my ongoing research into Sherry Cask practices in the Scotch Whisky industry, what I learnt was that Springbank is ordering more and more First-Fill Sherry 250L Hogsheads (as opposed to the traditional 500L Butt), because the wine and wood to spirit ratio (or surface-area-to-volume ratio) is higher by roughly 26%, meaning that the fresh sherry flavours being infused into the whisky are not only more intense but are transferred more rapidly. That means that spirit matured in these fresh wet casks will produce a similar Sherry flavour profile to the more traditional Sherry Butt but in half the time.

Newly arrived fresh Sherry Hogsheads

The Stamp that this is a Certified Sherry Cask

Finlay explained that, yes, the casks arrive still wet and fresh with Sherry inside and are filled with new-make spirit usually within a few days and maximum a few weeks. Do they pour out the excess sherry still at the bottom of the cask before filling with spirit? Finlay refused to answer but had a large grin on his face. You can draw your own conclusions.

I took a photo of the QR-Code of one of the Sherry Hogsheads that were sitting outside the filling house ready to be filled with spirt. First of all, you notice that the cask has been certified as a genuine Spanish Sherry Cask, which amongst other things, means that it has been seasoned with genuine drinking Spanish Sherry. Which type Sherry? Well, it was most enlightening scanning the QR-Code.

Sherry Cask nº 25.0796.692660

Batch nº L-07/24 Cooper JMM, S.L. Oak Spanish Litres 250

Oloroso seasoned for at least 12 months

Produced by JOSE Y MIGUEL MARTIN, S.L. with Certificate SC.18.156

for J&A Mitchell & Co Ltd. (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), registered as Authoriced User with code 0057

Date Seasoned 21/08/2025

(By the way, I also noticed that spelling mistake “Authoriced”. I spoke to my wife about this. Being a Spanish speaker herself, she explained that many Spaniards might easily mistakenly spell this word with a "c" instead of a "z" or an "s".).

So, the cask was seasoned with Oloroso Sherry for at least 12 months, possibly more.

The '0057' code identifies “J&A Mitchell” as the authorised buyer/user registered with the Consejo Regulador (the official Sherry regulatory body).

I would have expected an indication of the Oak type the cask was made from within the data. Either Quercus alba (American White Oak), Quercus robur (European Oak), or sometimes Quercus petraea (local Spanish Oak). The fact that it says “Oak Spanish” isn’t really an indication of the oak type used.

“Produced by JOSE Y MIGUEL MARTIN, S.L. with Certificate SC.18.156”, tells us quite a lot.

José y Miguel Martín, S.L. (JMM) is a well-established, family-run Spanish Bodega and cooperage, with roots dating back over a century to 1917. They are one of the big cask producers for the Scotch Whisky Industry.

What is particularly interesting to me is the “Date Seasoned” of 21/08/2025. This is not necessarily the date that the Sherry was poured out of the cask, but simply the date when the cask received its certification, which must have been after the minimum 12-month seasoning period. The Sherry could have been sitting in the cask for longer. This was confirmed by the date on which the batch of casks were registered, that is “Batch nº L-07/24”. So, this confirms that the seasoning period was 12-13 months from July 2024 to August 2025.

The Springbank Warehouse

After that, the newly certified Sherry cask was stress-tested for leaks by applying 2 psi of air pressure. Then, the entire batch of casks would have made its way to Scotland and then onto the distillery. So, the whole journey from Bodega to the Distillery would have taken anywhere from around three to four months. That's quite a long time compared to larger distilleries that can receive fresh new Sherry casks typically within a month or two.

On a related subject, I asked Finlay about the yeast they were using and whether it had Kosher certification. He said that there were bags of yeast sitting around the cask warehouse so I could take a look at them there. Sure enough, when we got to the warehouse, there was a bag of yeast leaning against a cask. I immediately noticed the large OK symbol on the side and pointed this out to him. He had noticed that OK symbol before but had no idea what it was until I’d told him.

Before we got to the tastings session at the end of the tour, we passed a very impressive blending and sampling laboratory.

The Glengyle Distillery Tour

For the Glengyle/Kilkerran part of the tour which began only a few minutes after we had finished the tastings session at the end of the Springbank tour, we were joined by the group of Koreans who we had met in the morning. Although their English was pretty basic, they were very friendly and asked us where we were from and where we had disappeared to in the morning. One of my sons answered that we were from Israel. (Don’t forget that in February 2026 the war in Gaza and Lebanon was still raging). I waited for the reaction and when it came, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was rather positive. They remained just as friendly.

The famous view through the wall that features on the Kilkerran label

The Glengyle distillery is situated at the back of the Springbank distillery courtyard.

The “distillery” is actually just a large barn-like building containing washbacks and the stills. The stills originally came from the now dismantled Ben Wyvis Malt distillery situated inside the Invergordon Grain Distillery. (The other parts of the whisky production like the malted barley and cask filling are all done a few meters away at Springbank).

I want to personally thank Finlay for a very enjoyable and memorable visit, for his friendliness and openness to answer what probably seemed to him to be very weird questions.

We really did receive the VIP treatment and it made it feel even more special the fact that I really wasn’t expecting it. I am so grateful to everyone at Springbank who went out of their way to make us so welcome, which included preparing special sample bottles of Springbank and Kilkerran for us, all of them from Ex-Bourbon matured barrels, exactly as I had requested.

Our last stop was of course to the distillery shop. This is where I grabbed two bottles of the long sought after Springbank 5-Year-Old 100° Proof as well as my "statutory" purchase of two Glencairn glasses whenever I visit a distillery for the first time. Not only does this add to my existing collection, it’s great to use a Glencairn glass with the actual name of the distillery that produced the whisky I’m reviewing.

The Legendary Springbank Cage

It was at this point that the shop assistant invited me to visit “The Cage”.

Springbank are legendary for their “Cage” bottlings. This is probably the most famous, talked about, romanticised, and physically “guarded” retail allocation system in the entire whisky world. Yet another aspect of Springbank that has gained mythical status.

Today, this consists of a single shelf-case of extremely Limited-Edition Single Cask bottlings of Springbank, Longrow, Hazelburn and Kilkerran, protected by a locked caged door in an alcove on the other side of the distillery shop. It is restocked each day and access to it is strictly limited.

The History of the Cage

Up until 2021, the retail outlet for Springbank was down the road from the distillery in the Cadenhead’s Independent Bottling company shop in Longrow, also owned by J&A Mitchell (owners of Springbank). It was there where “The Cage” first resided.

My first visit to Campbeltown back in Nov 2019

The origins of the idea began when warehouse workers at Springbank, who routinely draw samples from active casks to monitor the quality of maturation, began pouring the leftover liquid into 700ml glass sample bottles. Instead of simply storing these bottles, someone had the idea to sell them in the Cadenhead’s shop. These glass sample bottles were sealed and sent to the shop, where staff casually hand-wrote the cask details onto plain white paper labels and stuck them on the front of the bottles to be sold as curiosities to occasional visiting tourists.

Around the early 1990s, when Springbank was gradually becoming the legend it is today, the popularity amongst enthusiasts and scarcity of its bottles began to rise.

When Springbank realised that these bottles were being flipped for four times the retail price or more, almost as soon as they left the distillery, someone hit on the idea of putting these special one-of-a-kind bottles in a caged cabinet. Then, customers would get to visit said cabinet by invitation only. In other words, the customers would now be vetted. The cabinet was placed within the inner sanctum of Cadenhead’s shop. To get there, you’d have to be escorted through to the back of the main shop floor and guided down a long passageway. At the end of this, marking the end of your quest, was a massive floor-to-ceiling industrial steel partition, and behind this steel cage, the cabinet stood, guarding all these prized bottles. It was Springbank fans who began to refer to this cabinet as “The Cage”.

I have to admit, somewhat embarrassingly, that when I visited the Cadenhead’s shop back in November 2019, I was totally oblivious to the existence and phenomenon of this cabinet of “sample bottlings”. Only after I had already purchased two bottles, one a Springbank Rum Wood and the other a “29-Year-Old” independent bottling of Auchroisk, was I invited to visit “The Cage”. Not knowing quite what this was and the significance of the invitation, I followed the salesman through into the passageway to the cabinet of bottles at the end. Yes, it looked very impressive at the time but, browsing the bottles with their plain labels and looking at the eye watering prices of all these bottles, it was merely a curiosity for me. I took some photos of the bottles and then indicated that it was all very interesting but I’d like to leave now. Looking at the photos I took of those bottles, I could kick myself for not buying at least one of them.

Yes, I took photos of some of the bottles but neglected to take a photo of the cage.

"The Cage" was relocated sometime in 2022 and today it can be found in the distillery visitor’s shop. However, "The Cage" is now vastly scaled down into a neat wooden wall cabinet with chicken-wire mesh stapled to the doors, no doubt as a nod to the original steel cage back in the Cadenhead's shop. While the gesture of the invitation was special, I couldn't help but cast my mind back to my first visit to “The Cage” (the original one), in Nov 2019 and that missed opportunity to purchase even one bottle back then. Now, looking at this modest bookshelf sitting in the open, in the middle of the distillery shop, I couldn’t help feeling that the new physical setting lacked the profound ritual of the past.

Behind the room that housed the distillery shop there was actually another kind of “inner sanctum” room, but this housed a long glass display cabinet containing a museum of past Springbank bottlings to be looked at and admired, obviously not for sale.

The saleswoman explained that she’d only allow me to purchase up to a maximum of three bottles from “The Cage” as long as I agreed to her writing my name on one of the bottles and the names of two of my sons on the other two. I was actually pleasantly surprised that there was so much “kosher friendly” choice as the majority of bottles there were Ex-Bourbon with only a minority being Ex-Rum (still suitable for the strictly Orthodox) or Ex-Sherry.

Not that I was feeling under any particular pressure from the saleswoman, I nevertheless chose relatively quickly, whereas I’m sure others would have taken their time in their selection. I ended up taking away what I thought was a nice variety of Springbank styles and cask maturation types:

Hazelburn (their Triple Distilled range) Fresh Bourbon, 59.9% abv, “9 Y/O”.

Kilkerran Fresh Bourbon, 57.8% abv, “13 Y/O”.

Springbank (Distilled 2.5 x) Jamaican Rum Cask, 58.5% abv, “6 Y/O”.

The Three Bottles now sit in my Whisky "Museum", here in Israel

Note Springbank’s use of the word “Fresh” to refer to “First-Fill”. In my opinion, “Fresh” is actually a more descriptive term as far as flavour is concerned even though “First-Fill” is more technically accurate and the one used by everybody else in the industry. No doubt, another example of Springbank wanting to go it their own way.

Of course, a flipper would have completely ignored Springbank’s poorer sister, the Kilkerran, and gone for three Springbanks, but that wasn’t a consideration for me.

I still can’t help thinking that that older layout of “The Cage” back in the Cadenhead’s shop had an atmospheric mystique that is missing from today's sanitised, modern distillery retail setup, even when walking away with what was, by any objective standard, an incredible 3-bottle haul.

Incidentally, Milk and Honey distillery in Tel Aviv has its own version of “The Cage”, a bookcase housing bottlings of its own distillery exclusives, a wonderful tribute to Springbank distillery.