ONE OF the whisky world’s most famous names could have its bid to be part of Scotland’s Homecoming celebrations dashed by council red tape.
J&A Mitchell & Co Ltd, owner of Springbank and Mitchell's Glengyle Distilleries in Campbeltown, is planning on throwing open its doors to the public as part of the Scottish Government’s whisky month, part of the 2009 Year of Homecoming.
Staff at Springbank and its sister distillery Glengyle, also in Campbeltown, are holding an open day on May 21st and have erected a sign on the road to the Mull of Kintyre town to let potential visitors who may not be familiar with the geography of Scotland’s west coast know just where the distilleries are.
However, Argyll and Bute Council have ordered the company to take the sign down, leading to fears that potential visitors will be put off making the trip to Campbeltown.
The council’s position is that the sign must have planning permission and also breaches advertising regulations. In their letter demanding its removal, planners also state that planning permission is unlikely to be granted at any time.
Neil Clapperton, Managing Director of J&A Mitchell, was furious when he learned of the council’s letter.
He said: ‘This letter is a nonsense. The council official who wrote is says that permission is unlikely to be granted but who is he to make such a judgement? That is surely a matter for our elected representatives to decide at a planning meeting.
‘All we are trying to do is provide information for prospective visitors so that they know where our distilleries are and how to get to them. Bringing visitors to Campbeltown is crucial to the local economy and I’m staggered that Argyll and Bute Council should take an attitude like this without even speaking to us to find out the story behind what we are trying to do.’
Director of Production Frank McHardy added: ‘The First Minister has encouraged Scottish people and companies to get involved with Scottish Homecoming Year and J & A Mitchell are no exception, having for some time planned an open day at our distilleries in Campbeltown to fit in with other celebrations of whisky taking place during May. By adopting what J & A Mitchell consider to be a blinkered approach by the planning department of Argyll and Bute Council another good idea to attract more people to the Kintyre area would appear to have been Scotched.’
Campbeltown was once known as the whisky capital of Scotland, with more than 30 distilleries working in the town.
Today there are three working distilleries and the area is recognised as one of the country’s five whisky producing regions.
J&A Mitchell is an independent, family-owned company which practices traditional, hands-on distilling.
Springbank is the only distillery in the country which carries out the entire production process and produces a whisky popular with connoisseurs across the globe.
Wm. Cadenhead Ltd. (Scotland’s Oldest Independent Bottler) introduces Duthies Copper Stills.
The initial Duthies range consists of 6 Single Malts from a diverse range of distilleries. Having access to the full range of Cadenhead’s casks allowed us a great deal of freedom. After sampling many casks the Tasting Panel managed to condense the range down to the 6 distilleries they felt were the best in terms of quality and character.
These were then narrowed down to the following:
Auchentoshan Distillery 19 year old
Caol Ila Distillery 13 year old
Cragganmore Distillery 15 year old
Glen Grant Distillery 13 year old Sherrywood matured
Glen Scotia Distillery 17 year old
Mortlach Distillery 16 year old Sherrywood matured
These Single Malts are all bottled at 46% abv, without chill-filtration or artificial colouring.
For further information please don’t hesitate to contact your nearest Cadenhead shop:
UK
Campbeltown 01586 551710 donald.brown@the-tastingroom.com
Edinburgh 0131 556 5864 chws@wmcadenhead.com
London 0207 935 6999 ivers@whiskytastingroom.com
GERMANY
Berlin 0049 30 30 831 444 berlin@cadenheds.de
Cologne 0049 22 12 831 834 info@cadenheads.de
DENMARK
Odense 0045 6613 95 05 whisky@whiskyandlifestyle.com
SWITZERLAND
Baden 0041 562 220 444 more@cadenheads.ch
HOLLAND
Amsterdam Details to follow shortly
Company History
Mr Duthie was the nephew of William Cadenhead, and ran William Cadenhead Ltd from 1904 until his untimely death in 1931. Mr Duthie was also the person most responsible for building the reputation of William Cadenhead Ltd as a bottler of single malts and rum.
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Cadenhead's recently attended the Whisky Ships Luzern Festival 27th - 28th March 2009.
The festival was a huge success with many visitors attending to try the extensive range of Cadenhead products on offer.
For more information on any of the Cadenhead products in Switzerland please contact:
Peter Siegenthaler
CADENHEAD's
whisky & more
Mittlere Gasse 15
5400 Baden
Tel: 0041 (0) 56 222 04 44
more@cadenheads.ch
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The first of the Springbank™ O.D.D. bottling has now been carried out and we have come up with some 12 Y/O Springbank™ matured in a light rum barrel and some 9 Y/O Springbank™ matured in a red wine hogshead. Tasting of these products will be carried out in the Cadenhead's London shop from Thursday 23rd until Saturday 25th April inclusive.
Frank McHardy will be there, so if you fancy coming along we will be delighted to see you.
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On 21st May 2009, we are having an open day at Glengyle Distillery.
Tours of Mitchell's Glengyle and Springbank Distilleries available throughout the day.
- Global launch of Kilkerran "Work in Progress"
- Open day bottling from single cask of Kilkerran
- Kilkerran masterclass with Frank McHardy
- Springbank masterclass with Stuart Robertson
- Farmers market promoting a variety of excellent food from Argyll
- Brewdog - the renegade Scottish Brewer will be in town with some of his beers, including Paradox matured in Springbank and Longrow casks available to taste & buy
Plus live music
Free entry - Gates open 11 am - 4 pm
for more info and to book masterclasses (£5 each) tel - +44 (0) 1586 552009 or e mail info@springbankwhisky.com
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