• Springbank has a population of 5,000, and is on the southern edge of Scotland – sticking out like Palermo on Italy’s boots – and flourished back in the day as a major whisky exporter and fishing port.

• Springbank is rare in that it produces – in addition to its namesake whisky – two other brands: Longrow Single Malt and Hazelburn Single Malt. (Longrow is a highly peaty whisky. There is also an experimental tokaji-cask edition available; the brand won Best Campbeltown Single Malt at the 2013 World Whiskies Awards. Hazelburn, the newest variety, was first distilled in 1997 and since bottled as an 10-year-old.)

• The distillery hires 66 people and they produce only 12,000 litres of whiskies a year – this is terribly inefficient, but this is what you get when everything is hand-crafted and self-produced. (Compared to say one of the big corps, which might have a staff of 30-40 who produce three million litres a year). Yup, gotta love it.

• Springbank staff have the option to buy the first cask, and they can either trade it or sell it back to the distillery. (Sounds better than the Google canteen if you ask moi.)

• Campbeltown used to be whisky capital of the world, boasting 28 distilleries, but the numbers shrank during the prohibition due to its dire export demands. In 2000, it was down to two distilleries – Glen Scotia and Springbank – and the powers that be was gonna take away the town’s “Whisky Region” claim. Springbank promptly bought and restarted another distillery so as to fulfill the minimum of three to be designated a whisky region. Springbank is the ubermensch of whisky companies.

• During the prohibition, notorious Chicago gangsta Al Capone sold bootlegged whiskies with a fake ‘Campbeltown’ label to fool people about its quality.

• In 2008, the distillery stopped production for a year because the cost of oil and commodities had skyrocketed. That’s it, there’s no punchline.

• Mull of Kintyre by Paul McCartney was about Campbletown.

• Springbank Distillery in Campbeltown is one of only two distilleries in Scotland to perform every step in the whisky making process, from malting the barley to bottling the spirit, on the same premises: the other is Kilchoman Distillery who also grow their own barley.

• Springbank bottles their own whisky. (This is news? you ask. Yes, not many distilleries do it themselves, especially the big boys).

• The answer you get when you ask anyone working in Springbank why their whisky is distilled two and a half time – not twice, not three times – 2.5 times, is “We don’t know”. It’s just the way it’s always been done.

Like this? Aberlour is the one that popped our whisky sherry

11