The Springbank Distillery Tour and “The Cage”

 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.