Whisky & Spirits Blog | Compare Buy Enjoy
Fractal peatreek
Cask No: 66.237
Old & Dignified Qty left: 101
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Heavily Peated Qty left: 93
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 94
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Heavily Peated Qty left: 101
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Heavily Peated Qty left: 101
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Heavily Peated Qty left: 104
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“Cricket bat wrapped in hessian”
Cask No: 28.67
Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 10
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 10
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 10
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 14
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Lightly Peated Qty left: 28
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 29
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Lightly Peated Qty left: 32
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 34
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Lightly Peated Qty left: 40
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Spicy & Dry Qty left: 42
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Join the great tumult – Cask No: 146.2
A quiet nose but it’s palate more than makes up for it!
You can get the complete picture of these releases from my previous blog post here …
The SMWS has very kindly sent me one of these bottles to try – namely ‘Join the great tumult – Cask No: 146.2’ to try. (Thanks SMWS!)
So, what did I think? Here are my tasting notes …
Cask Type: 1st fill STR barrique
Origin: England
ABV: 62.2%
£79.50
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Nose: It’s a shy one, this dram. It gives up it’s aromas slowly. But give it time and there’s toffee apples, muted spring flowers, creamy biscuit and some citrus.
Palate: Luxuriant mouthfeel with cane sugar sweetness, syrupy orchard fruits, a little lemon and do I detect a hint of blackcurrant? Finish: Herby, grassy spice complete with punchy pepper and some honey sugariness keeping it in cosy company. A short finish completes the experience with some woody dryness. Overall: Well this whisky has a quiet nose but it’s palate more than makes up for this! If you like sweet fruits, wisps of flowers and some savoury bite then this dram is certainly for you! |
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Many thanks to the SMWS (@SMWSUK) for sending me such a fine bottle of English Whisky!
• The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was established in Edinburgh in 1983 and has 37,000 members around the world.
• It is owned by The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc
• The SMWS bottles rare single cask and single malt whisky, exclusive blends and a range of other Single Cask Spirits.
• The Society has bottled whisky from 180 distilleries from Scotland and beyond
• The Society offers a new batch of around 20 different single malt whiskies every month
• Members have access to four exclusive SMWS Members’ Rooms in Leith, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London along with a global network of 100 partner bars.
• The Society offers a variety of membership options that can be tailored.
• For more information about the Society, visit: https://smws.com/, Twitter: @SMWSUK Facebook: @thesmwsuk Instagram: @smws_uk
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is based in Edinburgh
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is building a portfolio of premium brands that bring together some of the world’s best spirits producers with a growing movement of discerning consumers by curating unrivalled collections of craft spirits.
• ASC owns The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) and in 2021 it launched J.G. Thomson & Co. Inspired by its namesake, which was originally a wine and spirits merchant in Leith, Scotland, in the 1700s, J.G. Thomson is a new, adventurous blender, creating small batch blended malt whiskies, blended grain whiskies, rum and gin.
The SMWS New Wave Whiskies!
Artist Bob Dewar
The ‘New Wave’ celebrates new distilleries and hidden gems – it’s a symbol of everything that the SMWS is all about.
This is a release of 10 bottles for markets around the world (4 to be released in the UK/EU), selected from three of the UK’s newest distilleries and all illustrated by the Society’s original illustrator, Bob Dewar, to marry up that original spirit with a new wave of bottles.
Trying new whiskies has always been part of the endless discovery journey for Society members, and that’s as true today as it has ever been. The ‘New Wave’ is a look forward, with an interpretation of flavour by our old master, Bob Dewar, on each bottle label.
The distilling scene is vibrant and it’s a pleasure to work with distilleries old and new.
All of these releases are from our new make fillings programme, so we’ve seen them develop from day one and are delighted to see these releases with the artwork of a key figure in the Society’s history.
– Euan Campbell: SMWS Head of Whisky Creation
Bob Dewar is the artist who was instrumental in defining The Society look!
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• The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was established in Edinburgh in 1983 and has 37,000 members around the world.
• It is owned by The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc
• The SMWS bottles rare single cask and single malt whisky, exclusive blends and a range of other Single Cask Spirits.
• The Society has bottled whisky from 180 distilleries from Scotland and beyond
• The Society offers a new batch of around 20 different single malt whiskies every month
• Members have access to four exclusive SMWS Members’ Rooms in Leith, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London along with a global network of 100 partner bars.
• The Society offers a variety of membership options that can be tailored.
• For more information about the Society, visit: https://smws.com/, Twitter: @SMWSUK Facebook: @thesmwsuk Instagram: @smws_uk
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is based in Edinburgh
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is building a portfolio of premium brands that bring together some of the world’s best spirits producers with a growing movement of discerning consumers by curating unrivalled collections of craft spirits.
• ASC owns The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) and in 2021 it launched J.G. Thomson & Co. Inspired by its namesake, which was originally a wine and spirits merchant in Leith, Scotland, in the 1700s, J.G. Thomson is a new, adventurous blender, creating small batch blended malt whiskies, blended grain whiskies, rum and gin.
Delightful bewilderment
Cask No: 64.135
Deep Rich & Dried Fruits Qty left: 33
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Peated Qty left: 11
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Sweet Fruity & Mellow Qty left: 29
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Peated Qty left: 33
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 46
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Deep Rich & Dried Fruits Qty left: 47
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Qty left: 51
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Spicy & Dry Qty left: 55
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 63
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 64
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Spicy & Dry Qty left: 75
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 82
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 87
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 88
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 89
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Lightly Peated Qty left: 93
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Spicy & Dry Qty left: 94
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Sweet Fruity & Mellow Qty left: 95
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Deep Rich & Dried Fruits Qty left: 98
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 100
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 101
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 102
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Oily & Coastal Qty left: 110
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Deep Rich & Dried Fruits Qty left: 150
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ABV: 50.0% Qty left: 253
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The SMWS 40th anniversary bottling!
Maverick – an unorthodox or independent-minded person – or dram!
Maverick is a 12-year-old small batch single malt Scotch whisky and there is more information on my previous blog post here.
Throughout 2023, the SMWS, which has grown to include branches in more than 30 countries across the world including China, Australia, the USA and Japan, will release several special bottlings globally to celebrate its 40th anniversary, alongside various events and collaborations, all inspired by its idiosyncratic founder’s unorthodox outlook.
Among the Society’s anniversary activities over the coming months are innovative creations such as a chilli-tinged whisky, collaborations with a ‘thrill engineer’ and a top-secret world-record attempt. The Society will also launch a new podcast series featuring maverick and game-changing characters from around the world.
The SMWS has very kindly sent me a bottle of ‘Maverick’ to try. Thanks SMWS!
So, what did I think? Here are my tasting notes …
A limited-edition whisky with only 2,100 bottles available in 14 countries.
Age: 12 years
Date distilled: 21 June 2010
Region: Speyside
ABV: 50% abv
Cask Type: Refill bourbon hogsheads, then Spanish oak first fill oloroso and second fill Spanish oak Pedro Ximenez hogsheads
Spirit Type: Small batch single malt
£65
Flavour profile: Not assigned but would be very much be in the Deep, Rich & Dried Fruits category
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Nose: Rich toffee apples, lemon citrus with sherbet sugar followed by oranges, hints of banana ending in rich sherry and red wine – very inviting!
Palate: Very smooth, creamy mouthfeel. The palate sweet and sherried with luscious Christmas fruit cake and candied orange. Add in some creamy chocolate with coffee grounds and that’s quite a palate! Finish: Heady, sweet, punchy spicy pepper with a little ginger ending with lemon and liquorice. Overall: I love this dram! Initially it comes across as a quite a simple whisky but over time it slowly reveals hidden complexities that are very rewarding. And it’s also a great excuse to treat yourself to another top-up! |
SMWS: Founder, Pip Hills sampling the 40th anniversary bottling
Many thanks to the SMWS (@SMWSUK) for sending me such a fine bottle!
• The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was established in Edinburgh in 1983 and has 37,000 members around the world.
• It is owned by The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc
• The SMWS bottles rare single cask and single malt whisky, exclusive blends and a range of other Single Cask Spirits.
• The Society has bottled whisky from 180 distilleries from Scotland and beyond
• The Society offers a new batch of around 20 different single malt whiskies every month
• Members have access to four exclusive SMWS Members’ Rooms in Leith, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London along with a global network of 100 partner bars.
• The Society offers a variety of membership options that can be tailored.
• For more information about the Society, visit: https://smws.com/, Twitter: @SMWSUK Facebook: @thesmwsuk Instagram: @smws_uk
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is based in Edinburgh
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is building a portfolio of premium brands that bring together some of the world’s best spirits producers with a growing movement of discerning consumers by curating unrivalled collections of craft spirits.
• ASC owns The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) and in 2021 it launched J.G. Thomson & Co. Inspired by its namesake, which was originally a wine and spirits merchant in Leith, Scotland, in the 1700s, J.G. Thomson is a new, adventurous blender, creating small batch blended malt whiskies, blended grain whiskies, rum and gin.
The SMWS 40th anniversary bottling!
“I think it’s lovely … it makes me smile – very, very nice whisky indeed!”
Age: 12 years
Date distilled: 21 June 2010
Region: Speyside
ABV: 50% abv
Cask Type: Refill bourbon hogsheads, then Spanish oak first fill oloroso and second fill Spanish oak Pedro Ximenez hogsheads
Spirit Type: Small batch single malt
£65
Flavour profile: Not assigned but would be very much be in the Deep, Rich & Dried Fruits category
The definition of a maverick is an unorthodox or independent-minded person. In 1983, Pip Hills founded The Scotch Malt Whisky Society based on an idea that everyone said wouldn’t work. Pip wanted to bottle whisky straight from the cask, unadulterated, because it retained maximum flavour. And he was right: people loved it, and the Society was born. He was a maverick in its truest form.
This expression is a celebration of the iconic sherry cask. For its creation, the SMWS selected some bourbon hogsheads of Speyside single malt. They moved the whisky to a selection of oloroso and Pedro Ximenez-seasoned hogsheads, all made from Spanish oak, for varying length of additional maturation; between two and three and a half years. They then blended the casks together to create this dark and rewarding dram.
The bespoke Maverick artwork was created by Glasgow-based artist and graphic designer Andy Rogerson. This unique bottling is part of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
On a recent trip to Jerez I was thinking about how much there is to explore in whisky, particularly the cask that the whisky is matured in. And I had this kind of sense of excitement that I imagine our founder Pip Hills had back in the early days when the Society was just starting.
So that kind of feeling was the inspiration for putting Maverick together. This is very much trying to encapsulate that excited feeling of discovery within whisky.
It’s great fun, and this is really the most exciting part of the job. When I get to sit down with a row of samples and really start to assess those and start to decide how they might fit together, that is so much fun.So I started looking at our sherry matured stocks and I came across a Speyside single malt, this is drawn from Spanish oak, oloroso, and Pedro Ximenez casks. What I was trying to do was get a nice balance between the kind of dry oloroso character, nuttiness and the sweet Pedro Ximenez decadent side.
So it’s a combination of those two cask types and both in Spanish oak.
– Euan Campbell: SMWS Head of Whisky Creation
I think it’s lovely … it makes me smile – very, very nice whisky indeed. I see from the bottle that it’s been in two or three different kinds of cask, which is not something that – being old-fashioned – I approve of all that much. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and this is perfectly lovely whisky. Very, very rich, it has light fruity notes, but also dark fruity notes, it smells like Christmas cake and black bun, that sort of thing, and dried fruits.
It’s floral as well, which you would expect any good whisky to be. There are deeper underlying notes which I think are aldehydic flavours and sherry-related flavours, which presumably since it spent some time in a sherry cask, you’re getting that.
– Pip Hills: Society founder and ‘Maverick-in-Chief’
SMWS: Founder, Pip Hills sampling the 40th anniversary bottling
The aromas of freshly waxed, natural marble floors, mosaics and terrazzo tiles were followed by a fruity scent from apricots, peaches and plums, before a cup of Assam tea and fig, apple and raisin bread pudding joined the party.
On the palate, we found American-style blueberry and banana pancakes with lemon juice and maple syrup, as well as cardamom and orange-spiced rhubarb on top of fluffy French toast.
Following dilution we discovered dark chocolate, marshmallows and a sherry mango trifle. To taste, a traditional ‘blood & sand’ cocktail, named after a 1922 film about a Spanish matador, using equal parts of Scotch, sweet vermouth, cherry liqueur and orange juice.
• The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was established in Edinburgh in 1983 and has 37,000 members around the world.
• It is owned by The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc
• The SMWS bottles rare single cask and single malt whisky, exclusive blends and a range of other Single Cask Spirits.
• The Society has bottled whisky from 180 distilleries from Scotland and beyond
• The Society offers a new batch of around 20 different single malt whiskies every month
• Members have access to four exclusive SMWS Members’ Rooms in Leith, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London along with a global network of 100 partner bars.
• The Society offers a variety of membership options that can be tailored.
• For more information about the Society, visit: https://smws.com/, Twitter: @SMWSUK Facebook: @thesmwsuk Instagram: @smws_uk
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is based in Edinburgh
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is building a portfolio of premium brands that bring together some of the world’s best spirits producers with a growing movement of discerning consumers by curating unrivalled collections of craft spirits.
• ASC owns The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) and in 2021 it launched J.G. Thomson & Co. Inspired by its namesake, which was originally a wine and spirits merchant in Leith, Scotland, in the 1700s, J.G. Thomson is a new, adventurous blender, creating small batch blended malt whiskies, blended grain whiskies, rum and gin.
Pip Hills, founder of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, pictured at the Abderdeenshire farm where he first discovered single cask whisky
Having been dismissed by industry experts in 1983 as an idea that would never work, a whisky club started ‘for a lark’ by a maverick whisky enthusiast in Edinburgh is this year celebrating its 40th-anniversary and approaching 40,000 members around the world.
For four decades, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) has specialised in releasing ‘whisky in its purest form’ – mainly single malt whiskies bottled from single casks that are not diluted with water, artificially coloured or chill-filtered to prevent it going cloudy when water or ice is added.
Now The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, which has grown to include around 30 branches across the world including China, Australia and the USA, is marking this new milestone in its journey with a year-long series of special releases, events, collaborations and happenings, all inspired by its founder’s unorthodox outlook.
The Society is also launching a new podcast series featuring maverick and game changing characters from around the world and will assemble a first-ever female-only tasting panel to select future releases!
Alongside commemorative bottles and special releases for the 40th year, the Society’s anniversary activities over the next 12 months include innovative creations such as a chilli-tinged whisky, collaborations with a ‘thrill engineer’ and a top-secret world-record attempt.
The Society will also launch a new podcast series featuring maverick and game changing characters from around the world and assemble a first-ever female-only tasting panel to select future releases.
The worldwide whisky club was started in 1983 by then Edinburgh-based accountant Pip Hills. The idea came after he’d experienced an epiphany discovering that whisky drawn straight from a cask had much more flavour compared with that era’s choice of off-the-shelf whisky.
His ingenious idea of forming a club in Edinburgh to share these ‘pure’ single cask whiskies with others and making whisky more fun by using wine-tasters’ terminology to describe flavours was a game-changer at a time when the Scotch industry was perceived as dull and in decline.
Four decades on, the whisky industry is booming – thanks in part to pioneers like Hills – while the Society is also thriving. Despite being told by industry experts that his idea of a whisky club would never work, the Society now has around 30 branches around the world, over 100 partner bars worldwide, has bottled whisky from over 180 different distilleries and has more than 37,000 members. The club is part of the Artisanal Spirits Company plc group, known for creation and curation of outstanding limited edition whisky and artisanal sprits for premium drinks lovers around the world.
The Society’s year of celebrations also include the release of a special short film about its origins which documents the whisky epiphany Hills experienced when he first sampled single cask whisky at an Aberdeenshire farm. Other plans involve the release of more sherry-cask matured whiskies, and new releases from distilleries the Society has never bottled from before.
They say ‘mighty oaks from little acorns grow’ and that is true of the Society’s story. It’s incredible to think that a small gathering of pals sharing single cask whisky in Edinburgh has grown into this worldwide club. It seems apt that in our 40th year, we are closing in on reaching 40,000 members, worldwide.
As we enter our fifth decade, we’re incredibly excited. Our Spirits Team is hard at work seeking out incredible casks and we continue to bring people together to explore the flavours of whisky and create new friendships. Our members and adventurous whisky fans looking to join the Society can expect to see a few surprises during our 40th anniversary year. Watch this space…
– Andrew Dane: CEO of Artisanal Spirts Company plc
I started the whole thing for a lark. At the time, most of the Scotch whisky industry was very dull and most of the whisky wasn’t up to much. I had had no great liking for whisky, but when I first tried whisky drawn straight from a cask, it was an epiphany – this whisky tasted astonishing and quite unlike any whisky I’d drunk before. I shared some with my friends and they loved it too, so it seemed like a good idea to share it with more people.
When we started the Society and began to share the ‘secret’ of single cask whisky with others, there’s no doubt that we began to alter people’s attitudes, so that they came to see that behind the branded sameness of Scotch whisky there lay a world of variety and interest, as well as a drink that tasted a lot better than what they were used to. The great thing was that we had a lot of fun doing and people joined the Society in their thousands to share in the fun, as well as to get their hands on the whisky.
– Pip Hills: founder of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Pip Hills, founder of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, pictured in the 1980s
1. In 1983, Pip Hills started a revolution in the world of Scotch whisky when he established The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Edinburgh
2. Today, the Society is a worldwide whisky club dedicated to single cask whisky – it has 37,000 members, around 30 branches, over 100 partner bars, and it has bottled whisky from more than 180 different distilleries.
3. Prior to his involvement in the whisky world, Hills studied first medicine then philosophy before working as an Inspector of Taxes and later running his own tax accountancy business.
4. Hills’s interest in single cask whisky started in the late 70s when he experienced an ‘epiphany’ trying some whisky which had been siphoned straight from a cask into an old lemonade bottle while visiting a friend’s farm in Aberdeenshire.
5. Hills discovered that this ‘pure’ cask-strength whisky had more flavour and character compared with that era’s choice of off-the-shelf whisky, which was diluted with water and often artificially coloured.
6. Hills sourced his first cask of whisky from Glenfarclas Distillery in Speyside. Driving from Edinburgh, he transported the cask in the back of his 1937 Lagonda.
7. In the early 80s, the Scotch industry was perceived as dull, in decline and its brands were bland, but Hills and the Society revolutionised this world by adding a sense of fun and camaraderie.
8. Borrowing the evocative and entertaining language of wine-tasters to describe whisky flavours, Hills and the Society helped establish the concept of recreational whisky tastings, which are now so commonplace.
9. The formation of the Society helped drive a resurgence of Scotch whisky. Several years after the Society was formed, others in the industry took note of interest in single cask whisky and began to mention casks more in their marketing to help promote their brands, while others also began to sell whisky at cask strength, explaining the flavour advantages of that.
10. Now 82, Hills remains a passionate supporter of the Society and single cask whisky, and is revered in whisky circles. In 2022, he received the Dr Jim Swan Award for Services to Scotch Whisky at the Scottish Whisky Awards for his trailblazing role in setting up the Society.
• The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was established in Edinburgh in 1983 and has 37,000 members around the world.
• It is owned by The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc
• The SMWS bottles rare single cask and single malt whisky, exclusive blends and a range of other Single Cask Spirits.
• The Society has bottled whisky from 180 distilleries from Scotland and beyond
• The Society offers a new batch of around 20 different single malt whiskies every month
• Members have access to four exclusive SMWS Members’ Rooms in Leith, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London along with a global network of 100 partner bars.
• The Society offers a variety of membership options that can be tailored.
• For more information about the Society, visit: https://smws.com/, Twitter: @SMWSUK Facebook: @thesmwsuk Instagram: @smws_uk
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is based in Edinburgh
• The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) plc is building a portfolio of premium brands that bring together some of the world’s best spirits producers with a growing movement of discerning consumers by curating unrivalled collections of craft spirits.
• ASC owns The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) and in 2021 it launched J.G. Thomson & Co. Inspired by its namesake, which was originally a wine and spirits merchant in Leith, Scotland, in the 1700s, J.G. Thomson is a new, adventurous blender, creating small batch blended malt whiskies, blended grain whiskies, rum and gin.
Retro walnut ashtray
Cask No: 16.89
Peated Qty left: 54
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Lightly Peated Qty left: 54
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 61
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 62
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 66
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Spicy & Dry Qty left: 70
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 70
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Spicy & Dry Qty left: 72
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Ginger pear puff pastry tarts
Cask No: 9.270
Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 47
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Spicy & Dry Qty left: Only 5!
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Peated Qty left: 58
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Peated Qty left: 60
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Sweet Fruity & Mellow Qty left: 78
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 79
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 79
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Spicy & Sweet Qty left: 82
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Deep Rich & Dried Fruits Qty left: 84
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Sweet Fruity & Mellow Qty left: 84
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Sweet Fruity & Mellow Qty left: 86
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Peated Qty left: 88
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Deep Rich & Dried Fruits Qty left: 90
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Juicy Oak & Vanilla Qty left: 91
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