Cage Bottling Cage Match!

Winding up the Springtime Springbank series of reviews with three Springbank cage bottles - going out with a bang. Three unicorns, two brands, one distillery, three cask types, one first fill, two refill. This will be fun!

Doesn't look like much, does it? 

I wasn't sure if I should even post this review - these three whiskies are irreplaceable, and all but unobtainable. The 'cage bottlings' from the venerable Springbank Distillery in Campbeltown are the stuff of legend. Exclusive to visitors / pilgrims who make the considerable trek to Campbeltown itself, previously to the Cadenhead's store or now to the distillery itself - yes, the cage now resides at Springbank itself, which is fitting. Unfortunately there are also a multitude of these revered rarities listed on the European auction sites every month, and most do go for silly money, but that's just part of the whisky world we live in - sadly. I'm probably not helping the situation by writing about them either, which was another reason for my uncertainty about posting this three-way review. And these already-impossibly rare bottlings have become even more scarce over the last couple of years, as their reputation grows and their secondary market values go through the roof thanks to scarcity, pandemic-induced madness, and the general explosion in demand for all things Campbeltown, and all things whisky. But in the end, after mentioning it to a few friends, and also because I had samples of three different cage bottles staring me down from the shelf, and also because these unicorns need to be shared and enjoyed (even if it has to be vicarious), it had to be done! 

For the uninitiated, a 'cage bottle' is essentially a 700ml cask sample of Springbank, Longrow or Hazelburn, taken straight from the cask at Springbank distillery, adorned with a simple white label and some basic information written in shorthand. "Duty Paid Sample, for Trade Purposes Only". To a Springbank fan, those words are pure poetry. Then you'll find, hand-written in pen no less, the warehouse number that the cask is/was stored in, the rotation number, the type/brand of the whisky, the cask type and cask size, and the ABV, the date that the bottle was filled, and the age of the whisky at the time of filling. The type of whisky is of course either the unpeated and triple-distilled Hazelburn, the lightly peated and 2.5-times distilled Springbank, or the heavily peated and double-distilled Longrow. All single malts produced entirely at Springbank Distillery. Since Hazelburn and Longrow each only make up 10% of the distillery's already small production volumes, these are certainly the more scarce of the three types, although Hazelburn can often be under-appreciated and sometimes goes unloved. Cask types are written in shorthand codes - F for "Fresh"- Springbank-talk for first-fill, or R for Refill. Then B for ex-bourbon, S for ex-sherry, R for ex-rum, P for ex-port, and so on - occasionally there may even be a wine cask such as Claret, Burgundy, Chardonnay etc. Typically it is the first-fill sherry or port cask samples that collectors go nuts for, but in my experience, the refill and/or ex-bourbon casks can be absolutely brilliant, with more distillery character and that delicious Campbeltown dunnage "funk" on show. The last piece of the shorthand puzzle is the cask size - BRL for barrel (200-ish litres), HHD for hogshead (225-250-ish litres), and BUTT for... butt (500-ish litres). I'm yet to see a small cask, port pipe or puncheon cage bottling, but they could exist as well. What about the rotation number? No it's not a cask number, it's an operation number - basically just a warehousing & inventory system number assigned when casks are emptied or moved between warehouses, or when samples are taken. These numbers reset every year, but there's no rhyme or reason as to the timing. 

These are essentially the next level of distillery exclusive bottling, since while you don't get to fill the bottles yourself from the cask, all of these are essentially one-off bottlings, a snapshot of the contents of one particular cask at one particular time. Those casks may be aged further, or tipped into a larger vatting, or bottled as single casks. But they're specially selected by the distillery team, most often Production Director Findlay Ross, without any publicised reasoning or method. And no, you do not get to try these hidden gems before buying, and you should be counting yourself lucky that you were able to buy at all! And from the handful of examples that I've been lucky enough to sample, they're incredibly special whiskies. Those casks have been singled out by the distillery staff themselves, and lucky fans who get their timing right when they visit the "wee 'toon" may get the chance to take one home and try it themselves. And they'll have to get their timing right, because adding to the allure of - and demand for - these cage bottle Springbanks is their fleeting nature - it's entirely possible that you'll make the 4-hour drive west from Glasgow to arrive in Campbeltown, and then walk through those iron gates onto hallowed ground, to fix your gaze upon... empty shelves. That's right, when & if you do get to visit the distillery and the cage, there's a very real chance that it will be completely empty. As much as the Springbank shop staff try to spread them out - and also try to avoid selling to flippers - there's no rhyme or reason as to when these bottles will be available for sale, sitting pretty behind their chicken wire enclosure. That photo above with about a dozen bottles on the shelves? That would be considered extremely lucky these days. Especially during the pandemic shutdowns and the resulting staffing and logistics issues and also the currently-exploding demand for everything Campbeltown, your chances of finding one of these elusive gems sitting in the shop are quite low. Which almost makes them magical. And for god's sake, don't buy them from auctions. Not only are the prices ridiculous, but anyone who lists recent cage bottles for resale on the secondary market, save those who have actual, real emergencies perhaps, does not appreciate what these bottles are or how special they are, nor how lucky he/she was to get their hands on them. 

For this review, we have samples of three different cage bottlings. One refill ex-bourbon hogshead Hazelburn, and two Springbanks - one refill ex-rum barrel and one first-fill sherry hogshead. Two of these samples came from generous friends and fellow-whisky geeks, and the third is the last vestige of my own cage bottle that I purchased on my so far only visit to Campbeltown, back in 2018. Time to get to it. Oh, and I apologise in advance for the photos below!

First up, the Hazelburn. Triple-distilled and unpeated, of course. This is an 18-year old refill ex-bourbon hogshead, filled in September 1999, matured in warehouse 15 and bottled circa 2017 at a cask strength of 53.4%.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Fruity, spicy and surprisingly funky. Baked red apples, ground black pepper and buttery shortcrust pastry. Dusty, lightly musty and lightly woody. Touch of warm clay and spun sugar toffee. Sandalwood, lemon rind and a few discarded seafood shells. 

Texture: Medium weight, rich & oily, spicy and earthy. Touch of heat but barely noticeable. 

Taste: Delicious. Soft & sweet entry, then building ground black pepper, olive oil, and a lovely wave of that gorgeous Springbank "funk". Musty and dank old wood, dusty dirt floors and old hay - very farmyard. Some demerara sugar and lemon rind. 

Finish: Long length. Ground black pepper carries through, more olive oil, spun sugar and dry old wood. The red apples come back but they're more dry and powdery here. And the Springbank oily, earthy character is here in spades. Dried lemon and dusty malt to finish. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. Close to a 5 out of 5, though. 

Notes: Absolutely delicious. Without doubt the finest example of Hazelburn that I've nosed & tasted to date. Surprisingly earthy & funky for a Hazelburn too, this could easily pass for an old (e.g. 90s era) Bruichladdich or even a Springbank. Some Hazelburns do seem to show that side to them, and it's clearer here thanks to the refill cask and the extra age. It's not easy to find a Hazelburn that is older than 13-14 years, and even harder to find an older example at cask strength. Which makes this cage bottle all the more special, since it shows just how great Hazelburn can be! It's often the last cab off the rank, the forgotten and left behind Campbeltown spirit compared to it's two peated Springbank stablemates, and now also it's cousin Kilkerran. But there are some great bottlings out there, and this cage bottling is an absolutely stand-out example. A huge thanks to the owner for sharing this very special whisky!

Next, the refill cask Springbank. Lightly peated and 2.5-times distilled, of course. This is a 14-year old refill rum barrel, filled in February 2004, matured in warehouse 5 and bottled in late 2018 at a cask strength of 56.3%. 

Colour: Gold with amber tinges.  

Nose: Sweet, tropical and fruity. Brown sugar, rich vanilla bean - make that crème brulee actually. Dirty engine oil and baked tropical fruit. Some dried mango skins, fried green banana and a touch of dried herbs - tarragon? Oily paint and old grease. Russian caramel fudge, petrol, and more crème brulee. 

Texture: Medium weight, very oily, sweet & funky. No heat at all. 

Taste: Banoffee pie (banana & toffee caramel) with spiked cream. Mango skins again, more oily paint and dirty engine oil, and vanilla bean. Touch of black pepper and soft caramel fudge. Touch of drying salt and damp driftwood. 

Finish: Long length. Spicy, sweet & earthy. Black pepper, brown sugar and fried banana, touch of petrol and oily putty. Engine oil and dirty grease, earthy and muddy "funk" but in a sweeter style than the usual farmyard / dunnage variety.

Score: 5 out of 5. 

Notes: Just a stunner, really. Is it technically perfect? No, of course not. But the amount of character here is just wonderful. And the balance between spirit/distillery character and cask influence is bang on, if you ask me. There's certainly some rum influence, but it hasn't overwhelmed the spirit - which is what happened with the 2019 Rum Wood release, in my opinion, so it's lucky that this was a refill cask. Instead the rum barrel has worked in harmony with the spirit, adding more sweetness and fruitiness, and giving a more rum-driven petrol & engine oil edge to the "funk". Based on this bottle I can't help but wonder how great that aforementioned Rum Wood release could have been if there were more refill casks in the vatting, or if they'd been the majority of the vatting. Something spoke to me when I spotted this bottle sitting in the cage three years ago, as soon as I decoded the "RR", I knew it had to come home with me - and I was proven right. Now that it's gone, I miss it so much that it hurts! But I have no regrets when it comes to opening it and sharing it - that's what these unicorns are for. 

And last but not least, the first-fill (fresh) sherry cask Springbank. This one is a 16-year old fresh sherry hogshead, filled in November 2002, matured in warehouse 7 and bottled circa 2019 at a cask strength of 49.8%. 

Colour: Dark bronze with rusty red tinges. 

Nose: Rich, clean sherry. Rum & raisin fudge, Christmas plum pudding with extra raisins and brandy sauce. Orange rind and roasted nuts, hints of ashy smoke and dank earthy peat. Rusty old machine shop - dirty saw blade coolant. 

Texture: Medium weight, rich, sherried and medicinal. No heat at all. 

Taste: Sweet syrupy entry, delicious clean sherry with raisins and currants, more sweet rum & raisin fudge and some melted ice cream. Warm dry-roasted nuts and dirty old engine oil. Touch of leather and drying wood spices.

Finish: Long length. Clean, rich, sweet sherry. More dry-roasted nuts - peanut, hazelnut and walnut. Rich dried fruity and candied orange. Then out of left-field, old bandages, ointments and crushed tablets (medicine) and a touch of brine. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious sherry bomb, but with a surprising medicinal side. Cleaner and brighter in character than the sherry cask Local Barley, and while I don't usually mind the dirtier, slightly more sulphurous side of sherry cask whiskies in many cases, this cleaner, sweeter and lighter take is really working for me today. It's sweeter than the Local Barley as well, but also much more medicinal - particularly on the nose and finish, which is quite the surprise - you won't find those notes in your average Speyside sherry bomb! The sherry-heavy cask treatment does give this cage bottle a lighter and cleaner feel than you may expect, but that's also the beauty of these one-off cage bottlings, they're all unique! 

So there you have it. Three irreplaceable cask samples from Springbank Distillery that are essentially one-offs. And all are extremely special and very delicious. I suppose the takeaway message here is, don't overlook refill cask Springbanks / Longrows / Hazelburns, they can be fantastic, and they don't attract the collectors & flippers to the same extent. Distillery character and spirit character are the name of the game here, combined with just the right amount of cask influence and "reductive" maturation, resulting in truly great whisky. And that applies to just about every distillery, not just the Campbeltown legends. 

At the risk of repeating myself, if you've been lucky enough to grab a cage bottle of any description, I hope you treasure it, and I hope you appreciate how lucky you've been. And for god's sake, don't sell it. And if you haven't been lucky enough yet, don't encourage the flippers by paying 3-4 times the retail pricing. But if you somehow get the chance to try one, don't hesitate. 

Cheers!