Is It Worth Joining The Sprinbank Society?

[Mark C]

I tried to sign up to the Springbank forum and apparently I need to get a membership. Who has one and is it worth it?

[The Craw]

AFAIK it's £50 to become a member of the Springbak society. Ultimately the main benefit is that you get 10% off Springbank purchases but it's not 100% clear to me what qualifies and what doesn't, so for now... I'm out.

As I've already mentioned on the Springbank 18 thread, I am a big Springbank fan and was considering it but after the Springbank 18 'boob' I'll refrain for now. The intriguing thing is that I have purchased a few Society bottles, 2-3 years ago, but apparently I'm not a member - go figure!

Perhaps Pete Currie could clarify.

[Willie JJ]

My understanding is that the reason that the Society bottles were available to non-Society members in the past was that the web shop was not able to have a members only area and so they were just displayed in the main shop area, where everyone who looked could see (and buy) them. Something like that anyway.

This problem seems to have been resolved now and the only way you can get access to Society bottles is to pay the £50 membership. Society bottles in the past have been good and very reasonably priced and cotinue to be so. Whether or not you think membership is worth it depends on how much you like Springbank/Longrow/Hazelburn/Kilkerran. For me it is a no brainer; a one off fee of £50 for access to single cask Springers over the years is not too much to ask I think. Also you get a Springbank T-shirt with the membership and 10% off Springbank products at the Springbank shop (as Paul said). Ok it will take you a bit of time to recoup your £50, but if you are in it for the long haul (i.e. speculators need not apply) then you will get a lot of pleasure from it.

Hope that helps

[Mark C]

Thanks guys. I saw the t-shirt and mini mentioned in the shop but not any other info on it.

[Peter Currie]

Hi Guys,

I will try and clarify a few points.

The Springbank Society started off as costing £15 per year to membership fee. This was to cover the admin, as we run the Society ourself and do not use a marketing company. After the first couple of bottlings, the society was neglected, the website had been taken over by porn-bots and many folk had joined the forum who were not actually society members. It was in a pretty poor state.

Christmas 2007 we invested in a new website/forum/on-line shop. We also employed Janet to run the society, and at the same time we emailed everyone who had paid £15 and informed than that if they replied to the e-mail, we would offer then the lifetime membership for free until March 2008. After this date anyone joining/re-joining would have to pay the £50.

The society membership entitles you to 10% off all standard products (Springbank 10, 100 proof, 15, Longrow CV, 10, 100 proof, 14, Hazelburn 8 and Campbeltown Loch) from the Cadenheads Shops or the website shop. You also get a nice membership card, a t-shirt and access to the society bottles, which we always try and price reasonably (£25 for a cask strength 8 year old...not bad).

It also gives you access to pre-orders of any new products, which is where I come to Leither.

As I have said before, LFW, Royal Mile and TWE are all great supporters of ours, however they are not our only customers and we try not to undercut any of our customers. As an example Berry Brothers & Rudd and Cadenheads London have it at £74. The Cadenhead's Shops are not owned by us, they are franchise and they set their own prices based on their overheads.
We also receive support from wholesalers throughout the country who have to make a margin before they sell it to retailers.
Its not easy

This problem only occurred because we tried to make a small amount available to Whisky Live visitors and society members. If we had released it all to retailers first we would have been equally criticised by many society members for not allowing them to get it first, particularly if they were not able to get it from LFW, RMW.

There is now no Springbank 18 year old left at the distillery. We never had enough to justify putting it on our online shop, therefore it was only released to pre-orders.

Again, I hope this answers your questions.

cheers

Pete

[Mark C]

Thanks for the lengthy reply Peter! I think the society bottlings is swaying it for me...

[Willie JJ]

Frankly I wish some of the others would follow the Springbank model. The majority of the other 'friends' groups seem either to be a bit pointless, or to be struggling to control the operation of them (maybe that's just the nature of such things with the limited resources available). Good work from the Springbank team imo.

[MacDeffe]

Yep, I realised I was a member but didnt have forum access so sent a mail to the springbank shop to get my account (re?)activated

Does this mean I should bring my Springbank society card when I visit Edinburgh next month (anf therefore very likely Cadenhead shop) ?

MacDeffe

[Willie JJ]

If you plan to buy any of the bottles mentioned by Peter it does. It's not too big a thing to carry of course.

[yossiyitzak]

I've been eying the Springbank society but, being a US citizen, wouldn't that mean I would not be able to benefit from ordering off the Springbank website (and getting that nice 10% off)? I suppose I could get the 10% off from the Cadenhead website but, would I have access to the Springbank society bottlings?

Thanks.

L'chayim/Slainte/Cheers!
Joshua

[Peter Currie]

Hi Joshua,

It is against the law to ship alcohol into the US other than through an importer, and to receive if you do not have an import license, therefore we do not post any Springbank Society or Cadenheads bottles to the US. We will post them to any other address you wish, or we can hold them until you can arrange collection.

We are working with a couple of retailers at making the Society bottles available to American members through Seigels in Texas and Wine & Liquor Depot in California, however the finer points of this are still to be ironed out. More info will follow.

cheers

Pete

[chrisg]

Any updates to this?

Hi Joshua,

It is against the law to ship alcohol into the US other than through an importer, and to receive if you do not have an import license, therefore we do not post any Springbank Society or Cadenheads bottles to the US. We will post them to any other address you wish, or we can hold them until you can arrange collection.

We are working with a couple of retailers at making the Society bottles available to American members through Seigels in Texas and Wine & Liquor Depot in California, however the finer points of this are still to be ironed out. More info will follow.

cheers

Pete

[DavidUK]

Joined while I was in Campbeltown last week. I think as Willie said earlier in the thread, it's a pretty good deal, especially with regard to the Society bottlings.

I picked up one of the last available Longrow 18yos and the new Kilkerran with a combined discount of over £11.

[Treeb]

Is the Springbank forum active?

I joined the Springbank Society last month (I've received the stuff ... tho the polo shirt wasn't so much XL as Big Top!) and have been unable to sign in to the forum.

Yes I followed the instructions ... log in to the shop first then the forum ... but the browser returns an error "Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete." (FWIW IE9 also returns an error.)

And yes I've attempted to contact Springbank several times via the contact form on the website but with no response.

Any suggestions?

[Peter Currie]

try emailing Janet Blair - janet@the-tastingroom.com. She is the font of knowledge about all things society and will be able to help.

@ Joshua, we shipped a few cases of the last society bottling (Local Barley 11 year old) to the US, and as far as I know they have been collected by society members from Binny's in Chicago, Sigels in Texas and Wine & Liquor Depot in California.

[Treeb]

try emailing Janet Blair - janet@the-tastingroom.com. She is the font of knowledge about all things society and will be able to help.

Many thanks Peter ... I'll drop Janet a line.

[Treeb]

try emailing Janet Blair - janet@the-tastingroom.com. She is the font of knowledge about all things society and will be able to help.

Many thanks Peter ... I'll drop Janet a line.

All sorted now