Sampling The SMWS 44.116: “Pirate Ship In A Storm” – ‘The One That Got Away!’
Sampling The SMWS December Outturn
This is the last sample I received from The Scotch Malt Whisky Societies’ selection of December Outturns. It was their 44.116: “Pirate Ship In A Storm”.
The 44.116 was a Speyside dram with 567 bottles being released – but unfortunately – this SMWS bottling sold out almost as soon as it was released online!
However, I still thought it was worth reviewing as some stocks may appear at some point (maybe they’ll find some down the back of the sofa!)
The SMWS (@SMWSUK) very kindly sent me a sample to try – thanks SMWS!
So, what did I think?
Tasting Notes – SMWS 44.116: “Pirate Ship In A Storm” (68.2%)
A Speyside Dram (Craigellachie Distillery) 8 years old, distilled on 20th. April 2011. Matured in a 2nd. fill ex-oloroso butt.
First released: 6th. December 2019.
567 bottles.
 |
|
Nose: Loads of port and sherry aromas with bags of fruit and sweet marzipan. Palate: Basically and wonderfully, all of the above. Port, sherry, plump fruit and sweet marzipan wrapped up in a satisying rich mouthfeel. Finish: There’s a little pepper at the end but it’s mainly syrupy, fruity and sherry laden. With water it smoothes out the flavours and to be honest makes the dram go further which is never a bad thing! Overall: I can see why this sold out so fast! |
| Browse other whiskies in the SMWS December Outturn. |
About The SMWS
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is a club unlike any other.
As well as being a place to connect with other like-minded whisky lovers, they are also internationally renowned for their mission: “to provide our members with an adventurous and fun journey of discovery of the world’s widest collection of single cask whiskies.”
Conceptualised in the late 70’s and established in 1983, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, now 35 years old, has branches and partners bars in 19 countries globally. The Society has a selection of over 500 casks every year, each cask yielding a few hundred or less whisky bottles which are unique to that cask.
Rather than name their Whiskies after the distillery, the Society has a coding system. The Society also creates fantastic tasting notes summaries for their Whiskies and other bottles. The whiskies are straight from the cask single malt, undiluted, without chill-filtration or colouring at cask strength.
More recently the Society has been named Independent Bottler of the Year in Whisky Magazine’s prestigious Independent Bottlers’ Challenge (IBC) competition.
