Renegade Springbank 18 years

About the Renegade Springbank 18 years

Renegade Springbank 18 years is a single malt Scotch whisky from Campbeltown, on the west coast of Scotland. Independent bottler Renegade released it at 46%, with no colouring added. The cask was a sherry hogshead. Eighteen years in wood pushed the spirit well past the standard Campbeltown template. This is an outsider's reading of one of Scotland's most traditional distilleries. The sherry does most of the talking. The distillery sits in Campbeltown, a small harbour town on the Kintyre peninsula. Mark Reynier ran Bruichladdich on Islay when he launched the Renegade label. He bought this 1995 cask and left it ten years in Campbeltown. Then he moved it across to Islay for eight more years in Bruichladdich's warehouses. Two coastal maturation sites, one spirit. That double address is what makes this bottling odd, and worth finding. Warm spice and black pepper come first, with old tobacco sitting behind them. The palate is thicker than the nose suggests. Dark chocolate arrives early, then more pepper, then a medicinal note closer to antiseptic than sweet. Brine runs underneath all of it, salty and dry. Spice and tobacco hold on for a long time after the swallow. That briny, medicinal edge refuses to fade at all. Renegade Springbank 18 years earns its name from the way it was handled. Reynier bought casks and moved them, which is not how most bottlers work. The spirit here matured in two coastal warehouses on two different coasts. Sherry, salt air and eighteen years all left their mark. It is not a subtle whisky, and it was never meant to be. For anyone who wants Springbank pushed off its usual path, this is the bottle.