Hazelburn 8 Year Old - Cadenheads Bond Reserve

Hazelburn is the name given to the triple-distilled, unpeated single malt whisky made at the Springbank distillery in Campbeltown. Springbank produces much less whisky than their theoretical capacity and Hazelburn makes up around 10% of the distillery’s output, so usually fewer than 100 casks of Hazelburn are filled each year.  

Hazelburn has been produced at Springbank since 1997, with the first general release official bottling being an 8-year-old that was launched in 2005. A 12-year-old was bottled from 2009-2016 and the core range today comprises a 10-year-old ongoing bottling with manifold small batch and single cask releases. The first 21-year-old Hazelburn appeared in 2019 and small batches of Oloroso sherry-matured Hazelburn have also been bottled in recent years.

In 1842 George Duncan established a wine merchant and distillery agency business in Aberdeen. Duncan was joined in the early 1850s by his brother-in-law William Cadenhead, who took over the business after Duncan’s death in 1858, changing the company’s name to Wm. Cadenhead. When Cadenhead died in 1904 the company passed to his nephew Robert Duthie, who developed the spirits side of the business.

Duthie died suddenly in 1931, and employee Ann Oliver was put in charge of Cadenhead’s. Sadly, Oliver’s tenure ended in financial difficulty and on her retirement in 1972 the business was forced to sell its entire inventory. Cadenhead’s was acquired soon afterwards by J & A Mitchell, proprietors of Springbank distillery, who relocated the business to Campbeltown. Cadenhead’s has flourished under Mitchell’s stewardship, releasing many legendary single malt bottlings in the 1980s and 1990s and now has outlets in Edinburgh and London as well as Campbeltown.