If someone had told me I would be having the luxury of trying six Springbank Cage Bottles side by side, when I started this blog 30 months ago, I would have probably laughed. Six of the bottles that many whisky aficionados dream of owning. If I were lucky, I might have managed to try one of these FOMO-generating bottles. But one thing that I have learned in the past couple of years is that the generosity of the whisky community is one of its strengths. Because of that, today’s post allows me to give a special thanks to some great whisky friends. And, it provides a wonderful excuse to talk about something all us whisky fans suffer from: fear of missing out. That FOMO which we need to be put in an objective perspective.
Springbank Cage Bottles, FOMO and flippers.
Many whisky aficionados are familiar with Springbank’s Cage Bottles. But for many who may be getting into whisky or are not fully sold on the Springbank cult, a little introduction might be welcome. The bottles officially go under the Duty Paid Samples name. Yet, everyone refers to them as ”Cage Bottles” because they used to be sold from a literal chicken-wire “cage” at the Cadenhead shop in Campbeltown. When Springbank opened its new distillery store in 2021, they moved to a proper cupboard there. The chicken wire is still used as a screen, as you can see in the picture I took when I visited Springbank last year.
For all intents and purposes, these bottles are Springbank’s Distillery Exclusive Cask Strength bottlings. They are only sold directly at the distillery on a first-come, first-served basis. Each day, there will be 6-8 individual bottles to choose from. The price depends on age. To provide some reference, when I visited last year (2025), a 12-year-old went for £90. Each of the bottles is different, and the selection usually covers all four of the J&A Mitchell brands (Springbank, Longrow, Hazelburn, and Kilkerran).
Many visitors to Springbank queue well ahead of the shop opening time (10 a.m.) to ensure their place in line to grab one of these. When they are gone, they are gone. (There are rumours that the cage gets refilled during the day if all the bottles on offer at opening are sold.) The other option, to avoid queuing, is signing up for Springbank’s Barley to Bottle tour. Participants are offered the choice of one bottle from the list of available cage bottles at the end of the session. Independent of how, each visitor is allowed to buy one per week. This is specifically designed to avoid secondary market players, the dreaded flippers, from stockpiling these sought-after bottles.
That’s not to say, unfortunately, that flippers are unable to get their hands on these bottles (which would require a separate post). So these do regularly appear in the secondary market, through auction sites, social sites, and even whisky shops. A quick Whiskybase search today revealed a number for sale at secondary prices in the £300-400 range for 8 to 15-year-old bottles. A great deal for the flippers who buy these with a sole economic intent. Personally, I find the behaviour repulsive and may their souls rot in hell. But for whisky aficionados like me and you, is it worth paying around 4x the original price for a chance to try these bottles? I’m about to put it to the test, but I need to thank some people first.
Generosity is in the DNA of the whisky community.
You might be wondering: how did I manage to taste not one, but six Springbank cage bottles? Not from an auction, not from a flip. Thanks to the generosity of whisky friends who decided to hand me these six samples as a belated birthday present during the Independent Spirits Festival. The two friends are Gian and Teresa from Dramming Around. If you are not familiar with their blog, I strongly suggest you pay them a visit. It documents their whisky travels and is well worth visiting regularly. Incidentally, as I am about to post this piece, they have just uploaded part two of their Springbank Whisky School adventure. To be fair, I think they do more for Scottish whisky tourism than they give themselves credit for. Reading their blog is a constant source of FOMO, the good kind this time.
The festival had just started, and Teresa and Gian appeared, handing me a bag with these precious samples and a warm, happy birthday wish. My jaw probably fell as soon as I was told what the samples were. I needed a second to regain my composure and thank them both wholeheartedly. I had not even tried a whisky at the festival, but I already had some incredible drams to take home as a memory of the day.
We had only met in person once, at Glasgow Whisky Festival 2025, and chatted online a few times, but it was an immediate connection. The shared Italian heritage helps. In our different ways, we are trying our best to revamp the Italian presence in the whisky community after the pre-2000 heydays. Maybe the fact that we all spent significant time living in Scotland (even if at different times) and we have a deep love for both our native and adopted homes also gives us more to share. But deep inside, it’s the joy of sharing this spirit we are so passionate about that generates the special spirit that many of us share in this community. We’ll connect on different levels, but sharing a dram will make us feel part of a bigger welcoming family.
And since it is the spirit that brings us together, let’s dive into it!
The Springbank Cage Bottle flight
I tasted all six in one session, semi-blind. I obviously knew what the six samples were, but they were tasted blind. Since I tasted them weeks after the festival, back at home in Italy, I couldn’t share the experience with Gain and Teresa. My lovely better half kindly set the blind tasting up for me. She even tasted a couple of the drams (no peat for her, I am afraid). As a result, you will find the notes for the samples written in the order I tried them, what my guess was, what the sample actually was, and then the score for each.
Sample 1
Colour: Rich old gold
Nose: Medium intensity, slightly peaty, like fresh tyre marks on asphalt, and maritime. Fresh, even zesty, some pineapple and lemon. Slight sweat (golden syrup), a hint of red berries, progressively becoming more estery and floral. With water, the peat emerges more but is still well behaved, now more fruity with peaches and apricots, woodsmoke, and closing on a zesty, citrusy note.
Taste & finish: It’s oily. The taste is orchard fruit, light caramel, wood peat, and pepper, with a slightly bitter medium-long finish. Water does not change the texture, but it makes it a lot rounder and complex: woodsmoke, tobacco, dried fruit, caramel, spices… lovely.
I thought it was: Kilkerran 11 yo Fresh Bourbon
What it actually is: Longrow Fresh Palo Cortado 9 yo, 56.3%
Score: 7
Two bottles showed me how silly preconceived expectations can be. I didn’t even think this was the Longrow for a minute – the peat, in my head, was too mild. I am glad to have sampled a more gentle side of Longrow. It might not be my favourite of the night, but it is definitely the one that made me think most when I wrapped the tasting up.
Sample 2
Colour: Pale straw
Nose: The nose is pretty faint, the weakest of the night. Not to say it is muted. There is lemon, strawberry taffy, grain, orange peel, and powdered sugar. Adding water turns the volume down further, and it gets muted and hard to detect individual notes.
Taste & finish: Very smooth. The taste is sweet yet drying, with apples, pastry, golden syrup, dry tannins, ginger, and cinnamon. The finish is medium with very similar notes. With water, the taste opens up more. I get grains, golden syrup, pastry, stewed apples, raisins. Then, ginger, and nutmeg spice, maritime, pleasant, even a touch of red fruit.
I thought it was: Hazelburn 9yo Fresh Bourbon
What it actually is: Hazelburn 9yo Fresh Bourbon, 59.9%
Score: 6.5
The Hazelburn DNA is immediately noticeable here. Hazelburn isn’t my preferred style, and this didn’t change my mind. It is not a bad dram, but it doesn’t quite come together. The nose on this one does not live up to the taste, and that brings the overall experience to a lower score.
Sample 3
Colour: Light rose gold, almost salmon
Nose: No doubt here: this is Port, and an active Port cask at that. Stewed cherries, strawberries, and raspberries, tobacco, pepper, light industrial peat, and orange peel. With water, it becomes more nutty, walnuts specifically, winey, and more funky. And that’s where the issues start for me – the funk and red fruit combo does not work.
Taste & finish: The texture is nice and full. Notes of cooked red fruit, then very funky with workshop grease smells, some unexpected winey acidity. Then peat, tablet, and maritime notes. A quite drying and slightly bitter, long finish. Adding water does this no favours, it edges on that wet cardboard/corked aroma, funky, peaty, and bitter.
I thought it was: Springbank 10yo Fresh Port Pipe
What it actually is: Springbank 10yo Fresh Port Pipe, 58.6%
Score: 4.
I really disliked this one – the mix of funk and coked red fruit notes immediately brought back memories of feeling sick after drinking too much wine, with that mix of fruit, acidity, and funk that really does not work. Even Springbank gets it wrong sometimes.
Sample 4
Colour: Rich old gold
Nose: A dirty, funky sherry nose. The good kind. Then maritime, tangerine peel, slightly lactic, a touch of phenolic peat, hazelnut, cherry, sultanas. Intriguingly complex. Adding water clears the funk away and brings more red fruit, and more lactic notes, keeping the peaty and maritime backdrop.
Taste & finish: The texture is rich. The taste again is dirty (in a good way), sooty, matchstick, sultanas and plums, baking spices mineralic, even a little milk chocolate. The finish is medium-long. As with the nose, water tones things down. It is still dirty but more fruity, mineralic, rich with plums and spices – plum pudding even. Intriguing.
I thought it was: Kilkerran 13 yo Fresh Sherry
What it actually is: Springbank 13yo Refill Burgundy, 57.4%
Score: 8.
The second sample, which totally stumped me. I was 100% sure this was a sherry cask. Is there a chance the burgundy is only a finish and the spirit was originally in Sherry? Who knows. Be as it may, this is a funky, dirty, cask-influenced whisky, in the best possible way – if that is your cup of tea.
Sample 5
Colour: Pale lemon
Nose: Peaty and sweet. Sooty peat, then maritime, barley sugar, rubber, candied lemon peel, and some farmyard funk. It changes significantly with water. Still peaty but more towards machine workshop notes, barley, maritime, and a touch of pineapple.
Taste & finish: Surprisingly sweet with a lot of golden syrup to match the peat blast, phenolic and woody. It then gets more maritime, almost salty, with a medium finish which is very sweet. Water amps up the peat, brings out more grain notes, to go with the maritime chewy, woody taste.
I thought it was: Longrow Fresh Palo Cortado 9 yo
What it actually is: Kilkerran 11 yo Fresh Bourbon, 56.7%
Score: 6.5
I got this wrong simply because of stupidity, completely ignoring the fact that Kilkerran also comes in a heavily peated version. Thinking back, it was obvious that the Longrow guess was wrong. There are no Palo Cortado notes; this is linear, very Bourbon cask forward. In short, it is simple yet satisfying.
Sample 6
Colour: Rich orange amber
Nose: An elegant nose. It opens on woody peat, then ripe strawberry and cherry, some pipe tobacco, white pepper and allspice, sandalwood, and just slightly funky. With water, the tobacco note becomes more prominent, and some dried figs and cola bottle candy notes add to the complexity.
Taste & finish: The texture is rich and creamy. Taste of tobacco again as on the nose, then prunes, white pepper. The peat lingers in the background rather than being a main character. The finish is long and elegant. With water, there is more of a salty, maritime sea spray note, a little funk appears, as does chocolate. The tobacco remains a constant, and the dried fruit notes gain some dates.
I thought it was: Springbank 13yo Refill Burgundy
What it actually is: Kilkerran 13 yo Fresh Sherry 54.6%
Score: 8.5
As for the Longrow, reading back the notes, I am not sure how I thought this was a red wine cask-aged whisky. The notes are those of great Sherry ageing, and it is pure elegance. As a Kilkerran fan, I have to grin at how good this is.
As is often the case, I managed to embarrass myself in a blind tasting, getting only two right out of four. But that does not take away in any way from the key question I wanted to answer today:
Do cage bottles deserve the FOMO and the secondary price?
Maybe and no. The “no” to secondary prices is the easiest one to explain. The pure fact that a whisky is bottled as a Springbank cage bottle does not mean it is a great whisky. The range of scores for these six drams is the perfect example. They can be wonderful, but they can also leave you wanting. I doubt Gian and Teresa knew I would be using those six precious samples to assess FOMO when they handed me that bag. But I am sure they knew it would be a special experience. All six were worth an evening of whisky fun.
And yet, I would be very disappointed to pay upwards of £300 for all of these on secondary, frankly, even for my two favourites in the flight. There is so much great whisky out there at a third or half of those prices – don’t let the scarcity and hype fool you. Do yourself and every other whisky fan a favour and let those flippers sit on their overpriced bottles until prices become reasonable – anything more than a 20-30% premium on the original price is not worth it.
Does that mean the FOMO is unjustified? Depends. If you are a true card-carrying Springbank fan, the cage bottles are the closest you will get to trying unique takes on your favourite distillery. And I get the FOMO in that case. The other exception where FOMO is justified is for those travelling to Campbeltown for whisky: take the chance and try to grab one. Waking up early and standing in line for a while is a memory that will make that bottle even more special. Plus, there is a good chance you’ll meet new whisky friends in that queue. But if you grab one, please open it and share it with a whisky friend at home who may not be lucky enough to visit the Wee Toon. Spread that generosity… It’s what makes this community special.
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