Some of us are familiar with the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society or SMWS, formed in Leith, Edinburgh in 1983 by Pip Hills and indeed some of us are also members of that society and have attended a couple of notable previous tastings of their whiskey, not to mention an excellent evening with Charles MacLean here in the town.
Since being formed in 1983, they have believed in doing things differently. As unconventional whisky experts they seek out whisky in its purest form, prize flavour above everything else and give each bottling a curious name. They’re united and constant in their passion – to share the world’s best whiskies, to bring them to life, and to make members proud to belong to the world’s most colourful whisky club.
The exploration of flavour and sharing their discoveries is what they’re all about. Members enjoy exclusive access to whiskies hand-picked by their expert Tasting Panel, from over 140 distilleries in Scotland and beyond, bottled at cask strength and offering a constant variety. How you drink them is entirely up to you.
In effect, they purchase spirit from a distillery, mature it in their own casks and launch it when they feel the time is right. At that point, a panel of their experts come together to taste this whiskey, write down their tasting notes and submit them to be amalgamated and from there the name of this whiskey is born. There is only ever one single cask of that whiskey and it is released at cask strength. When its gone, its gone. Their packaging is truly unique and the bottles are simply stunning in their presentation.
We look forward to hosting this tasting in Dick Macks new rooms and to add spice to the occasion, Finn MacDonnell & Peter White will be joined by new committee member Barry Rogers in presenting two each of the whiskeys on the night. Finn MacDonnell has even promised, or threatened to sing his presentation (depending on your point of view) to all. We also hope that our resident Scots show up in force to see whether they can work out just which distilleries the whiskeys are from.
For further information about the SMWS, just feel free to peruse their own website at https://smws.com/
1. Exotic Cargo batch 1 abv
2. Touches a lot of Bases 6.33 abv
3. Gummidge vs Pugwash 66.177 abv
4. Autolytic for the People 41.116 abv
5. Stirs your Soul 35.258 abv
6. Strangely Soothing 30.109 abv
