The SMWS Christmas Advent Calendar Countdown Is Nearly Half-Way!
The SMWS Christmas Advent Calendar Countdown Is Now Half-Way Through!
The selection is still available but is now called the
‘MIGHTY MINI SELECTION BOX’
and
is now reduced to £139!
‘MIGHTY MINI SELECTION BOX’
and
is now reduced to £139!
You can also see the Society Notes for each days dram by visiting the 25casks webpage.
Catch-up on what fellow Society Members thoughts are on each whisky by visiting the hashtag #25casks on Twitter.
25 Gems of drams!
Housed in a beautiful box to increase the magic, you’ll find a Society whisky surprise behind each calendar door! Designed to thrill the senses these 25ml bottles are packed full of taste and flavour. In addition these mini-gems are also a great opportunity to discover a new favourite flavour profile as well as taste and explore bottlings that you might not have tried before.
The set also makes a great choice if you’re hosting this holiday season – perfect as a festive table favour at Christmas or New Year!
Many thanks to SMWS (@SMWSUK) who have kindly sent me an Advent Calendar to sample over the run up to Christmas!
You Can Also Explore Christmas at the SMWS with these Useful links:-
- Membership and Gift Membership options (including Mystery Malt bundle offers)
- Advent Calendar
- Christmas collections and gift ideas (which change regularly!)
- Christmas page
- SMWS Gift Guide
- Dram-Cierge service information
- December Events: Edinburgh Vaults & Queen Street Venues
- December Events: Glasgow Bath Street Venue
- December Events: London Greville Street Venue
Below is a round-up of the first twelve days of posting my tasting thoughts from each dramming window of the Calendar (‘MIGHTY MINI SELECTION BOX’)!
DAY 12 Tasting Notes
– “By This Great Clatter” Cask No: 6.50 (57.9%)
12 Years old
JUICY, OAK & VANILLA flavour profile
Cask Type: 2nd fill ex-bourbon barrel
Origin: Scotland
Region: Speyside
Distillery: Glen Deveron (Macduff Distillery)
ABV: 57.9%
A whisky from the first distillery to use internal steam coils for heating the stills and modern shell & tube condensers. It is also one which signalled a big change for the industry.
This was also the first distillery to be built with no on-site maltings. By the 1970’s almost every distillery in Scotland had closed their maltings, and now only a handful remain.
Nowadays, much of this distillery’s output goes into the Lawsons blended Scotch, popular around the world.
 Nose: Muted caramel, grain starch, light vanilla and chocolate. Palate: A bright, light, vanilla infused palate with cane sweetness which is also floral and fruity. Finish: Intensely peppery and fruity sugars with a dry undercurrent but the finish is long and sweet. Overall: A rare chance to sample a dram that’s usually destined for blending and, as usual, it has some amazing flavour characteristics that are too good to just ‘blend’ away! |
DAY 11 Tasting Notes
– “April In Seville” Cask No: 39.230 (62.8%)
10 Years old
SPICY & SWEET flavour profile
Cask Type: Refill ex-bourbon barrel
Origin: Scotland
Region: Speyside
Distillery: Linkwood
ABV: 62.8%
Another whisky that mostly ends up adding character to blended malts, but when from a single cask can be an absolute gem – a true ‘unsung hero’ of a distillery!
 Nose: Forest fruits, honey and syrup with scents of meadow grass. Palate: Syrupy fruits with cherries, a little orange and creamy biscuit. Finish: A sweet chilli hit with dry wood. Overall: Quite a big spice hitter this one but the fruity sweetness is a balancing tasty joy! |
DAY 10 Tasting Notes
– “C’Est Chic” Cask No: 112.36 (59.3%)
10 Years old
JUICY, OAK & VANILLA flavour profile
Cask Type: 2nd fill ex-bourbon hogshead
Origin: Scotland
Region: Highland
Distillery: Inchmurrin (Loch Lomond Distillery)
ABV: 59.3%
Distilled on a straight neck pot still with rectifying plates which results in a lighter, fruitier spirit. There is also a ‘cooling ring’ at the top of the neck of the still. This trickles water down the outside of the still, cooling the copper and further increasing reflux, so only the lightest vapours reach the condenser.
Furthermore, the stillman makes a much higher ‘spirit cut’, between 80 and 90% ABV. This further selects the fruity-floral flavour compounds (mostly esters). Only these reach the spirit safe, while the heavier, malty, cereal, meaty flavours are left behind.
 Nose: Light, refreshing floral nose with additional crisp apple and fudge. Sweet chocolate comes along after a while fresh roses appear at the very end. Palate: Fresh and fruity with sherbet sweet vanilla. Finish: Forest fruits abound with a moderate spice though it does have some woody dryness at the end. Overall: A great balance of fruity floral and spicy flavours for this dram – enjoy this gem while it lasts! |
DAY 9 Tasting Notes
– “Viking Moderate Gale Force 8” Cask No: 4.320 (66.6%)
9 Years old
PEATED flavour profile
Cask Type: 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel
Origin: Scotland
Region: Highland
Distillery: Highland Park
ABV: 66.6%
Another Society favourite, all the way from Orkney this dram is one of the few produced by a distillery which still hosts its own floor maltings and make up around 9-10 per cent of each mash, while the distinctive peat comes from Orkney’s Hobbister Moor.
 Nose: Creamy barley with peat and dying smoke embers. Notes of heathery spice and the peat gets richer as time goes on with added treacle, chocolate, fresh citrus and old leather. Palate: Rich peat, treacle, chocolate and burnt smokey wood. Finish: Spice, spice and more spice! Together with antiseptic, salt and that chocolate starts to make itself noticed! Overall: This dram is a rich brew indeed and I’m NOT talking about tea! |
DAY 8 Tasting Notes
– “A Complex Character” Cask No: 41.139 (60.9%)
12 Years old
JUICY, OAK & VANILLA flavour profile
Cask Type: 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel
Origin: Scotland
Region: Speyside
Distillery: Dailuaine
ABV: 60.9%
This dram captures a style of spirit that will never be seen again at this Speyside distillery.
It was distilled prior to significant changes to the process that in theory have profound impacts on flavour.
 Nose: Juicy fruitiness with apple, melon, vanilla and caramel. After a time sitting I got red wine and fruity port. Palate: Oaky and sweet with fruity melon and vanilla. Finish: Burnt spice. Hints of charcoal and heavy pepper make a showing with a little of the fruity sweetness ending with grapefruit and a dry, salty finish. Overall: Some lovely creamy, sweetness to this dram but boy, that spice n’ pepper has some kick to it – you have been warned! |
DAY 7 Tasting Notes
– “The Magic Faraday Tree” Cask No: 128.16 (61.4%)
8 Years old
SWEET, FRUITY & MELLOW flavour profile
Cask Type: 1st fill STR barrique
Origin: Wales
Distillery: Penderyn
ABV: 61.4%
The STR (shave, toast, rechar) process is designed to regenerate flavour compounds and ‘extractive’ activity in a previously used cask.
Shaving the inside of the shell of the cask first exposes fresh untreated wood.
Toasting (gentle, prolonged heating) then generates new flavour desirable compounds (spicy, smoky, sweet) in the wood and the subsequent charring (intense heating until the wood catches fire) creates a ‘char’ or carbonised layer on the inside surface of the cask which is very effective at removing immature character from the spirit, particularly sulphury aromas.
 Nose: Tropical fruits abound! Lots of mango and passion fruit to the fore accompanied with rich blackcurrant and cola cubes. An amazing nose! Palate: Rich, creamy mouthfeel with bags of blackcurrant, tropical fruits and a little woodiness. Finish: A sweet, syrupy fruit concentrate which is edged off slightly with some pepper. Overall: A different dram for sure with amazing blackcurrant flavours – I’ve never tasted anything like this – it’s a sensation! |
DAY 6 Tasting Notes
– “A Wee Scamp” Cask No: 35.299 (58.2%)
7 Years old
YOUNG & SPRITELY flavour profile
Cask Type: 1st fill ex-bourbon barrel
Origin: Scotland
Region: Speyside
Distillery: Glen Moray
ABV: 58.2%
A ‘Society staff favourite’ as it’s a whisky members ask for again and again. Perhaps that’s something to do with the variety of spirit produced there – it has been the site of experimentation and maturation in a variety of unusual casks, while its unusually low stills and lyne arms help to create a light, fruity spirit which retains an oily character.
 Nose: Apple, citrus and floral notes with vanilla biscuit and there’s also mintiness and menthol in there as well to add to the mix. Palate: Creamy, sweet biscuit, fruity with apple and some attractive tropical flavours. Finish: A deep spiciness mellowed out with fruit and chocolate which produces a fine finish! Overall: A classy, sweet dram which deserves not to be rushed! |
DAY 5 Tasting Notes
– “A Particular Kind Of Beauty” Cask No: 108.49 (65.3%)
10 Years old
PEATED flavour profile
Cask Type: Refill ex-red wine barrique
Origin: Scotland
Region: Speyside
Distillery: Allt-a-Bhainne
ABV: 65.3%
An unusual peated Speyside malt. Until recently this was unheard of as a single malt, and any spirit (they produce peated and unpeated), was matured exclusively for blending.
 Nose: Smokehouse! Salty fish curing, aromas of briny shores and sweet peat with some antiseptic to set the taste buds anticipating! Palate: Very hot pepper with syrup sweet, smokey peat and BBQ sauce. Finish: The peat and smokiness goes on and on accompanied by antiseptic and that punchy spice which doesn’t let up. Overall: A smokey beach bomb leaving a warm, coastal glow in the back of the throat! |
DAY 4 Tasting Notes
– “The Sweet Kiss Of Leather Splinters” Cask No: 105.40 (66.2%)
8 Years old
JUICY, OAK & VANILLA flavour profile
Cask Type: 2nd. fill HTMC (Heavy Toast, Medium Char) Hogshead
Origin: Scotland
Region: Speyside
Distillery: Tormore
ABV: 66.2%
The Society Spirits Team used a bespoke, designer HTMC hogsheads for the final three years maturation of this whisky. HTMC is shorthand for ‘Heavy Toast, Medium Char’.
During maturation, casks both add and remove flavour and this relies on how the cask is heat treated in the cooperage.
An HTMC cask has been manufactured specifically to maximise both these processes.
 Nose: Unusual name for this dram! On the nose there’s port and hints of tropical fruits. Apple with sugary caramel and shades of mint – unexpected! Palate: Fruity in a mainly apple kind of way. Woody sweetness and creamy chocolate. Finish: A heady spiciness that is pretty powerful but the rich sweetness is so prevelant that it keeps all things in good check! Overall: I love an SMWS dram and this is no exception – a tasty combination of sweet n’ spiciness! |
DAY 3 Tasting Notes
– “Lip-Smacking Summery and Citric” Cask No: 1.257 (63.1%)
8 Years old
SWEET, FRUITY & MELLOW flavour profile
Cask Type: 2nd. fill ex-bourbon barrel
Origin: Scotland
Region: Speyside
Distillery: Glenfarclas
ABV: 63.1%
The first distillery the SMWS ever bottled from, way back in 1983 when Society founder Pip Hills drove up to Speyside in his Lagonda to collect the very first Society cask, Cask No. 1.1!
 Nose: Rich apple with toffee sweetness. There’s wood, then sherry and port notes to add to the profile and later on vanilla ice cream – quite a sensory treat! Palate: Creamy sherry, cherries, blackcurrant with some sweet chocolate. Finish: Heart warming (and any other bits!) spice, black coffee and some of that woodiness comes through. Overall: An ABV that takes your breath away – but in a good way – and it does return some great flavours in return! |
DAY 2 Tasting Notes
– “Gold Rush” Cask No: 122.42 (58.4%)
9 Years old
SPICY & SWEET flavour profile
Cask Type: 1st. fill ex-bourbon barrel
Origin: Scotland
Region: Highland
Distillery: Croftengea (Loch Lomond Distillery)
ABV: 58.4%
A dram from arguably the most interesting distillery in Scotland. Multiple still setups produce a multitude of different spirit styles.
 Nose: Subtle nose at first – a little woody and then there is a flurry of creamy vanilla, victoria sponge cake, peppery spice, prunes, red wine and chocolate. Quite a feast! Palate: Tropical fruits in sweet syrup with vanilla chocolate and light coffee, Finish: Feisty spice which combines with the earlier palate to produce a finely balanced finish. Overall: A smooth, fruity whisky, sweet with just enough of a spicy kick to keep you on your toes! |
DAY 1 Tasting Notes
– “Butchershop Quartet” Cask No: 68.38 (57.9%)
9 Years old
JUICY, OAK & VANILLA flavour profile
Cask Type: Re-Charred Hogshead
Origin: Scotland
Region: Highland
Distillery: Blair Athol
ABV: 57.9%
Rarely seen as a single malt, almost all spirit from Distillery 63.38 is destined for blending (it is a major contributor to Bells Blended Scotch Whisky).
 Nose: Crisp, green apples. Attractive sweet cake spice with white oak vanilla. Later on there’s creamy peach and cashew nuts. Palate: Nice mouthfeel with cane sweetness, creamy apple pie and chocolate. Finish: A warming peppery glow which quickly builds in strength ending in a dry finish. Overall: A winter warmer for sure but also with shades of Summer just gone. |
No peeking!
