Longrow 14 Year Old Original Bottling

Longrow 14 Year Old Original Bottling
Longrow is Springbank Distillery’s double-distilled and heavily peated whisky, which only accounts for around 10% of its annual production. The distillery’s namesake lightly peated & 2.5-times distilled Springbank whisky makes up 80% of their output, while the un-peated and triple-distilled Hazelburn takes up the remaining 10%. The double-distillation used in the Longrow spirit means that this whisky has skipped Springbank’s third still altogether and is only run through the distillery’s direct-fired wash still and the worm tub condenser-equipped the first spirit still, which normally operates as the intermediate low wines still. The spirit cuts for Longrow are taken considerably later in the run than those of the other styles, resulting in a dirtier and often lightly sulfurous whisky – which is no bad thing!
Depending on conditions the floor-malted barley used for Longrow is dried for up to 48 hours over peat fires, resulting in roughly 50-55 ppm phenols in the barley. But despite that figure, it doesn’t usually show itself in the typical heavily peated fashion, it tends to present as more of a deep earthy note with gentle peat smoke around the edges. So Islay fans who’re looking for a massive peat blast could be disappointed when they first try a Longrow, but it’s not all about the peat in this whisky, and as always it’s not all about the numbers. As with everything Springbank produces the volume of flavor, complexity, and character on offer here is outstanding, particularly when served at cask strength as is the case with this bottling.