Water of Life – The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
There is certainly no shortage of whisky clubs and subscription services these days and for anyone remotely into discovering new flavour nuances and variations of their favourite bottlings, joining one can prove to be a viable option.
The experience those services offer ranges from basic monthly tasting kits that might entice the uninitiated to tumble deeper into the fascinating rabbit hole that the world of whisky provides to curated offerings with expertise at the helm, attention to detail dedicated to each facet and the ambition to provide access to special independent bottlings that one would fail to find anywhere else.
Enter the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, which falls into the latter category,
In essence, the SMSW is a club the membership of which gains one access not only to whiskies exclusively sourced and crafted for its members, but also a range of social events, access to partner bars with discounts and regular communiques, e.g. their quarterly magazine Unfiltered, which is one of the more informative and intriguing whisky-centric on this earthround.
Incepted in the 1970s by Pip Hills and informed by his hobbyhorse, i.e. the acquisition of single malt casks to then share the contents with his friends, which to this day constitutes the core ethos and DNA of the SMWS in an augmented manner, it has evolved to firmly establish itself on the firmament of whisky clubs that has become known for its stringent and rigorous quality standards, implemented by the society’s tasting panel.
Sounds a tad illuminati?
Well, while the “enlightened” set out to put an end to the machinations of the purveyors of injustice, which to some degree could also be identified as an equivalent tenet of the SMWS as they provide access to more interesting whiskies with the only criteria being quality.
If you have ever come across the uniform signature green SMWS’ bottlings, you would have looked in vain for further details on the label as to the distillery, age, cask, or origin. A deliberate move, as the idea is to not let preconceived notions about regions and distilleries dampen the tasting experience of the more often than not off-profile single cask nuances and resulting surprising discoveries.
Instead SMWS uses a numbering system comprised of two sets of digits, which enables the curious and discerning drinker to unveil the source distillery and number of casks that have been sourced.
What I love about the SMWS are the tasting notes, which are not only expertly written in a way reminiscent of poetry to evoke a mouth-watering Pavlovian response with the mental images they conjure, but often contain subtle hints regarding the source that are easy to decipher for the initiated.
If you are looking for standard whisky offerings, joining the SMWS might not be for you as the appeal lies in the fact that single barrel whiskies can be quite different from the respective distillery’s core range, which on the other hand is the draw for aficionados willing to explore and experiment.
Harbouring more than a weak spot for Islay whiskies, I would love to see SMWS put less emphasis on sherry casks and release more Islays outside the confines of what Caol Ila offers, as I’d only imagine how interesting an SMWS bottling of Bruichladdich’s Port Charlotte / Octomore, Ardbeg, Kilchoman and Laphroiag could be.
Needless to say, with the limited nature of SMWS’ offerings and the keen and enthusiastic nature of its members, their monthly outturn is usually lapped up pretty quickly.
We will hopefully have a chance to cover the 2021 incarnation of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s Australian Malt Whisky Tasting Championship in October, where sensory prowess will reign supreme and which will help to further cover the merits of SMWS as an organisation and shed light on its events.
Summa summarum, if you love whisky and you invested in the independent bottling landscape and single cask variations, a SMWS membership proves to be a very good investment, especially if travel restrictions allow for a visit its inner sanctums in the old world, i.e. the vaults in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London.
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image courtesy of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
