Final autumn, we had the nice fortune of visiting Campbeltown – the distant fishing city on the west coast of Scotland, and as soon as the whisky capital of the world. With storm clouds gathering overhead, we sought refuge within the three remaining distilleries, delving deeper into the city’s fascinating historical past of decline and resurgence. Photograph credit score: Glengyle Distillery.
Campbeltown. The mere point out of the title will gentle up the eyes of probably the most passionate whisky collectors. Its spirits are extremely coveted, revered and cherished – if you’re fortunate sufficient to get your palms on a bottle.
However behind the whisky, it is a totally unassuming city. It’s positioned on the far finish of the Kintyre Peninsula, overlooking the Firth of Clyde. There is just one highway into Campbeltown, stretching down the size of the peninsula, overlooking the ocean lapping the shore. The Northern Irish coast looms on the horizon, virtually inside touching distance.
Round 4,600 folks stay right here, and there are three working distilleries: Glen Scotia, Glengyle and Springbank. Right here, the motels and pubs have a pale air, as for those who’ve slipped again in time. Purple leather-based and tartan, correct however unfussy. Ghost indicators stay legible on the aspect of buildings. Fishing boats are moored within the harbour. There are hints of a vibrant previous in all places you look, as a result of this was as soon as the whisky capital of the world.
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Information inform us that on the flip of the nineteenth century, Campbeltown had 31 distilleries. This determine would develop to 37 all through the 1800s. Two main industries blossomed right here: whisky and herring. Image a bustling hub of rolling barrels, fishing boats pulling into shore amid the market calls of the fishmongers. Distillery employees of their flat caps, the stench of fish curing within the solar. Smoke billowing from the pagoda chimneys.
These seem to have been instances of prosperity, abundance and trade. Turning the clock slightly additional again, there have been reputed to have been 31 unlawful stills working within the city by the tip of the 18th century. Distillers little doubt discovered resourceful and canny methods of hiding their spirit from “the exciseman” – the bogeyman of the 1700s. Then, in 1823, the Excise Act made it simpler for distilleries to change into licensed, and a legit whisky trade started to bloom. It could look like one in all Scotland’s most remoted outposts now, however within the period of the steamship, it was primely positioned between the remainder of Scotland and Eire, with a straightforward route south too.
We’re instructed all this by our information, Aly Anaut, who’s displaying us round city on a drizzly gray Wednesday. Aly is an animated information with a transparent ardour for whisky, which has introduced him right here from Cusco, Peru, along with his household.
As we stroll, Aly factors out the darkish crimson and black bricks that the buildings are constructed from. These got here from everywhere in the world, introduced in on steamships as ballast. We flip a nook, and he attracts our consideration to the form of the home windows in residential flats, talking to their former lives as distilleries. Even the Tesco on the town is an outdated distillery.
He tells us how the city’s whisky was nicknamed “pungent fish” hinting on the casks’ former lives. Just a little additional north, the Duke of Argyll’s citadel in Inveraray was constructed with funds earned from promoting the loch water to the city’s whisky-makers. These are small, virtually incidental, particulars, however every one is a brushstroke constructing a bigger image of a thriving previous.
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Our first cease is Springbank, the oldest remaining distillery on the town, relationship again to 1828. Its whiskies are among the many world’s most fascinating. They’re launched by poll, so it’s luck of the draw if you’re going to get one. Even once we arrive at 8 o’clock within the morning, there may be already an extended queue of vacationers forming outdoors.
Springbank has an old-school manufacturing philosophy, retaining a malt flooring for everything of their barley. The barley is raked and turned manually at common intervals. That is the standard means of changing the starch into sugars, however is a labour-intensive and backbreaking course of. Much less conventional are the fairy-lights strung alongside the partitions of the malt room, casting a golden glow over the grain. The pillars are painted in vivid hues: pillarbox crimson, mustard, forest inexperienced, violet and gold. It’s charmingly quaint, so far as conventional distilleries go; apparently, the native mice are eager on the atmosphere too.
Craig, our distillery information, tells us that 110 folks work right here, lots of them graduates from Herriot-Watt College. A deliberate effort is made to maintain the outdated expertise alive (a selected interpretation of “sustainability” that appears to chime with many distilleries). Everybody right here is native: after the NHS and the federal government, Springbank is the most important employer within the space. The distillery has all the time been pushed by a need to convey employment to the world – a legacy of its late proprietor, Hedley G. Wright.
When Wright handed away in August 2023, he had been a part of the Scotch whisky trade for over six a long time. It wasn’t nearly making whisky; it was simply as a lot about creating employment and safety for the households of Campbeltown. He’s spoken of in heat, reverent tones, and it’s already clear his legacy shall be upheld with pleasure right here.
Springbank produces three key expressions: Longrow and Hazelburn (named after historic distilleries), and the eponymous Springbank. Simplicity and custom are paramount of their whisky-making method. Analogue know-how fills the distillery, from the postbox-red Porteus mills that grind the grain, to a cast-iron Victorian mash tun through which the grain is steeped. What they confer with as “the pc” is an old style pill hanging on a pillar.
Springbank backs onto the second of Campbeltown’s surviving distilleries: Glengyle. The historical past of Glengyle echoes that of lots of the city’s different distilleries. It opened in 1872, then closed in 1925. Nearly 80 years later, it was introduced again to life by Hedley Wright, and it stays beneath the identical possession as Springbank. Glengyle produces a whisky referred to as Kilkerran, which can also be named after one other historic distillery.
As we transfer between the 2 distilleries, rain falls in sheets on the corrugated iron roofing, and the wind howls. The scent of candy cereal and fruity spirit lingers within the air. Speak turns to the long run. Planning permission has simply been granted for an additional three distilleries. Enterprise is booming in Campbeltown.
“The extra the merrier,” says Craig. “It’ll entice extra folks to the city.” With folks come extra motels, extra golf programs. On this means, the whisky commerce is deeply entwined with tourism and different industries – which, for now, is a welcome growth within the city.
The dialog turns to extra rapid challenges. There’s tough climate forward: landslides on the roads, cancelled ferries. In a city as distant as this, these are large – however not unusual – concerns. The probabilities of being stranded are very actual. When the vacationers come, they’ll little doubt courageous these storms, however how will the locals fare? Time will inform.
We heat up with a tasting of a few drams, beginning with the 23-year-old Hazelburn. It’s drawn straight from the cask and launched into our glasses, and it enlivens us with notes of candy toffee, crimson apple, melon, vanilla and candy wooden.
Then we transfer onto the Springbank 32-year-old. It’s all the time a privilege to style one thing that’s been maturing in a cask for this lengthy. As you would possibly anticipate, it has a gorgeous integration of flavours, softened with time. Golden apples, pear, candy wooden and vanilla. Chamomile, peach, toffee and elderflower. Every sip provides a lot, lingering on the tongue as our time at Springbank reaches its finish.
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Subsequent, we go to Glen Scotia, the final of the three remaining distilleries. Because it began making whisky in 1832, it has modified palms many instances, and it closed twice in its chequered historical past: the primary time in 1930, with its proprietor Duncan McCallum sadly taking his personal life; the second time in 1984. The distillery in its current iteration has been working since 1999 beneath the possession of the Loch Lomond Distillery Group, primarily based up the highway in direction of Glasgow.
Grasp Distiller Iain Macallister has been right here for 17 years, coming from a background in engineering. He brings a scientific and experimental method to the method, whereas paying homage to Campbeltown’s heritage. “The method is straightforward,” Iain tells us, “however there’s a lot complexity constructed into that simplicity.”
The whiskies listed below are made in a traditional model, with a subtly candy and saline character, and a sure delicacy about them. They produce a variety of age-statement expressions, however their most exceptional bottling is the Victoriana. That is impressed by a extra strong Victorian model of whisky, stuffed with wealthy spiced fruit, cinnamon and nuts, with a touch of delicate smoke.
We’re standing within the outdated warehouse the place the barrels are stored, wrapped in heat layers with a glass of whisky in hand. It’s simple to think about what it should have felt like right here within the 1800s. Little has modified, other than the set up {of electrical} lights. Gray stone partitions attain excessive above us, coated in centuries’ value of black mould – which isn’t as undesirable because it sounds. Iain tells us the fungus creates a layer of insulation, including a sure character and richness to the liquid because it matures within the casks. Such a novel patina is barely gained with time.
Iain attracts some whisky out of a barrel and pours it into our outstretched glasses. We’re tasting a first-fill Bourbon cask from 1991. The liquid has a superbly mellow character, with notes of cinnamon, vanilla, candy wooden spice and caramel, all woven collectively like silk.
After this, we style a Guyana rum cask from 2003. It’s brimming with tropical fruits, with a delicate coil of peat smoke. Pineapple, mango and juicy apples, with a flash of coastal brine. It’s warming, soothing and invigorating directly.
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Above us, the rain beats more durable. The wind whistles an ominous tune by the wood beams. The storm has arrived. We had been meant to be visiting Lochranza and Lagg distilleries on the Isle of Arran, however our ferry has been cancelled. So as a substitute, we depart Glen Scotia behind us and start the lengthy journey again to Glasgow, hoping for a easy passage.
We drive rigorously up the lengthy, lonely highway that extends alongside the flank of the peninsula, watching the ocean crash towards the rocks and the wind drag the waves askew. The sky is similar color because the distillery partitions, thick and livid.
Campbeltown has been formed by its historical past, however it has additionally been formed by its panorama. The whisky, for all its smoothness and richness, nonetheless accommodates slightly of this character. One thing arduous, weathered and timeless; able to enduring all method of storms, and getting back from what looks as if the tip.
In case you are fortunate to style a dram from Campbeltown, dig beneath the floor and also you would possibly discover it.
