SMWS December 2018 Out-Turn Review
I've reviewed a few Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) bottles on this site before, not to mention their Kaleidoscope outposts in both London and Edinburgh. However, I've never taken a deep dive into the group's offerings, nor have I joined their membership.
Last December, we had our first chance to interact with their U.S. branch, which is technically a separate organization and operates somewhat independently of its U.K. forefather. Yes, last December is not a typo -- I have just been that delinquent in putting down my thoughts on paper about this tremendous tasting.
The whole idea of the SMWS is that the group uses its membership fees and revenues to purchase single casks of whisky. Thanks to deep, longstanding ties in the community, SMWS draws from a roster of nearly every distillery in Scotland and from all major whisky-producing regions of the country. The group is now expanding out to other whiskies (Indian, Japanese, American) and rum, but their bread-and-butter remains Scottish-born and Scottish-aged single malt whisky.
The SMWS has one of the most unusual and fun naming conventions in the industry for its offerings. Each bottle comes with a code that identifies the distillery and then the cask number. For instance, 29.228 means cask 228 of Laphroaig, distillery 29 within SMWS's nomenclature. (All of the group's codes can be found here.) The bottles also receive an evocative name, often with a twist of dry British humor, that summarizes the flavor or the overall lyrical impression left by the dram. Islay bottles, for instance, tend to have names that emphasize their coastal, maritime, and smoky nature, like "Cooking with Driftwood" (the aforementioned 29.228) or "Surf 'n' turf in a camel's saddle bag" (3.270, an 18-year-old Bowmore).
The December 2018 out-turn tasting featured five "standard" whiskies -- ranging in price from $100 to $200 or so -- and a special "Vault Collection" expression that costs considerably more. Given that we were able to go back for repeat pours of all of these whiskies, I'd say we got considerable value from our not-inexpensive $80 tickets.
SMWS 63.46, "A walk in the park" (69.4% ABV) - What a way to start a tasting, right? This is one of the highest ABV scotches that I've ever tried, and unsurprisingly it's a relatively young buck. 10 years old, from Glentauchers, a new distillery for both my wife and myself.
The SMWS gives detailed descriptions of all of its expressions, and here's what they think a walk in the park tastes like: "A walk in the park - flower gardens and football pitches - the playres getting oranges, Dolly Mixtures and Liquorice Allsorts at half-time."
After the vapor wears off, this whisky features a cornucopia of fresh, zesty orchard fruit and citruses, along with a clear and pleasurable vanilla note. On the tongue, it's like clotted cream and scones from high tea, with rich butter and sweet flavors combined with a more potent sherry influence than I expected from its aromas. The finish has a bite and flavor that is most reminiscent of orange zest. Not spellbindingly complex, and perhaps thirsty for a drop (or a dollop) of water, but a great start. B+
SMWS 9.155, "Witches' night" (58.1%) - From one end of the spectrum to another, the tasting continued with a 22-year-old Glen Grant, another new distillery for us. Glen Grant is not particularly popular in America, but apparently it's big in Italy. Here's the society again: "Black magic as we had a bowl of borscht before dancing around the bonfire for Walpurgis night." Not sure what that means, but here's what we got.
This whisky led a double life, first in an ex-bourbon hogshead before moving into a first-fill Pedro Ximenez sherry cask. I think the latter wins out on the nose. There's a classic caramel and syrup character that's quintessential bourbon, but that actually doesn't normally come from ex-bourbon aging. PX delivers that concentrated hit of dark, sweet flavors. Unfortunately, this whisky is a little too long in the tooth, with a woody (Atlas cedar, spruce, pine), slightly bitter, dry, and tannic taste, and a minty, spicy, and woody finish. Fans of bone-dry whiskies -- or Walpurgis night -- may be huge fans of this one. Not for me, and certainly not at its $210 sticker price. B-
SMWS 96.22, "Rocky road spice freakout" (59.1%) - This is an exciting one! While we are quite familiar with this distillery -- it's Glendronach, one of my favorites -- we haven't seen independent bottles of it. This is also the youngest Glendronach that we've tried at only 9 years old.
"Superbly powerful spice meets sweet red fruits, hessian, charred wood, some beautifully earthy tobacco notes. A beefy dram for spice freaks. Previously matured in bourbon wood." More details indicate that it spent 7 years in that ex-bourbon before doing a 2-year finishing phase in first-fill PX sherry.
Those are respectable notes, and I can't add too much. Caramel macchiato and a dark, earthy quality distinguish its scents, so "charred wood" and "earthy tobacco" get pretty close to what I was getting. I wasn't experiencing fruit and spice so much as luscious, creamy espresso, although that bitterness could read as pepper. The palate is oily and sweet, and classic PX-finished whisky: ripe berries, maple syrup, and loads of baking spices and cinnamon. On the finish, I noted something very unique: sweet challah bread. At $105, this is best for advanced drinkers who can overlook its youth and appreciate its quality. A-
SMWS 42.36, "Lunch at the lighthouse" (61.9%) - Let's start with the experts, who say: "Salted liquorice and decking merged with Parma ham and fruit pickle, served with strawberries, ginger, marmalade and kelp stout." That is an incredibly weird description for this unlucky number 13-year-old Tobermory/Ledaig. Normally, Tobermory represents the unpeated output of that distillery, with Ledaig being its peated line. This whisky had a lot of the herbal, earthy hallmarks of a peated whisky, so it must be a Ledaig. As the fourth whisky that we tried, it's no surprise that my notes got a little more succinct and esoteric as the night wore on.
The nose's most distinct impression is mint and a slightly artificial scent that reminds me of toothpaste. That mint transitions into a more enjoyable lemon and salted tropical fruits (almost like salting a grapefruit) before concluding with a long, grassy, peaty finish. Overall, its oddity stuck with me and was arguably the best of the night's drams. A-
SMWS 53.250, "Smoked salt orange peel" (58.4%) - The fifth and final regular lineup expression of the night was a young, cask-strength Caol Ila expression. We tried a whisky with nearly identical specs earlier in 2018 in Edinburgh: 11 years old, nearly 60% ABV, and an excellent exemplar of its unique terroir. "Smoked salt orange peel" features "rich oil from sardines sizzled in salted butter with orange skin, burning leather and the salty tang of liquorice and tar covered ropes."
This whisky brings it full bore with the brine, so much so that it reminds me of one evening in Miami when I ran on the beach in the midst of a tropical storm. The winds were so fierce that they swept the sand off the beach and into the air, stinging my eyes and forcing me to head inland even as the rain continued to lash down on me. That's this scotch in a nutshell: petrichor, iodine, stormy sea winds, petrol, and fiery embers. Caol Ila's signature citrus rind is there in the background, so I wholeheartedly agree with the "orange peel" description. A-
SMWS 27.112, "A broadside cannon barrage" (54.7%) - This sixth and final whisky was the most anticipated bottle among most of the attendees. This is a powerhouse, 21-year-old Springbank -- a whisky old enough to drink itself! The picture above may already be clear enough to read the description, but the SMWS identifies notes of "brandied fruit cake and cherries soaked in rum whilst we fired a naval canon [sic]. Water added an oily, salty aroma to a now very chewy mouthfeel."
Springbank has a few hallmark notes in my mind, not all pleasurable. There's a shellfish or fish market impression that these coastal whiskies exude, but it's also accompanied by a slightly rotten or overripe fruit flavor. This particular cask fell on the latter side. There's some distinct dunnage warehouse funk, driftwood decomposing slowly on the beach, and overripe fruits and berries. It has spectacular flavors that don't much resemble its aroma -- a very well balanced mixture of salted pecans and brown sugar, almost pie-like -- and a long coda of anise seed and those same ripened fruits. This was a $495 scotch, so there's no chance that I'd buy it, but it was well worth trying. B+