Scotland, Campbeltown. Distillery operational. Owner: J&A Mitchell & Co Ltd

It is no coincidence that four of the fifteen most prized distilleries in Scotland are family-owned or independent. Throughout the 20th century, this status led them to seize on any commercial opportunity open to them and to develop the marketing ingenuity key to the development and sustainability of their businesses. The Springbank distillery is one of the finest examples of the villainy of the Scotch whisky industry in the 20th century.This is seen in two exceptional bottlings, one distributed in the early 70s, a 50 year old distilled on 29 December 1919 (stated on its certificate), and the other released in the early 90s, a re-bottling from the distiller, limited to 24 editions worldwide, also displaying the vintage 1919. It is also seen in a move made at the very start of the 2000s, when, under pressure from a stock hit hard by years of production crisis (1980s), the Mitchell family decided to drastically change the profile of their single malt, taking the opportunity to change the bottle at the same time.

A Springbank Local Barley distilled in 1999 and bottled in 2016, aged for 16 years. The whisky was produced from barley grown in the fields surrounding the distillery in Campbeltown. In this case, this was Prisma barely grown at the Low Machrimore farm in Kintyre. The first bottlings of this type, which can be recognized by their richly illustrated labels, were released in the early 1990s before taking the name Local Barley in the 2000s. The range was relaunched in the early 2010s, first as a five-part series, then finally as an annual bottling. A limited edition of 9,000 bottles.