Day 17 - KWM 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar - Scotch Malt Whisky Society 18.60
Posted on December 17, 2024
Day 17 — Scotch Malt Whisky Society 18.60 — SUPPING SHERRY FROM POLISHED WOODEN CUPS – 55.5%
by Evan
It is tradition for us to include a whisky bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in each year’s KWM Whisky Calendar. This year, we are featuring one that was bottled exclusively for Canada – to celebrate Canada Day, even. This is SMWS 18.60 — SUPPING SHERRY FROM POLISHED WOODEN CUPS.
Here is your Scotch Malt Whisky Society information, or refresher, depending on what you already know. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society – or SMWS as it will now be referred to keep my verbosity from hitting Dickensian levels – was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by a group of whisky lovers headed by a gentleman named Pip Hills. Over the years, it went from a small whisky club to something that could nearly be classified as a movement (if not a religion, which some members might argue it is), with 26 chapters and 40,000 members now found around the world. Canada’s own SMWS Chapter came into being in 2011, with Kensington Wine Market being it’s first exclusive retail partner. KWM and other shops host monthly Outturn tastings, featuring 6 to 7 new sample bottles, twelve times a year.
To purchase SMWS bottles, you do have to be an SMWS Member. Do not worry, though, this is not like joining Fight Club. Rules number one and two for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society are that EVERY member talks about the SMWS. Members of the SMWS both in Canada and world-wide tend to enjoy talking about whisky — specifically single cask and cask strength whisky — quite a lot. There are two ways to become an SMWS member.
- The first is by purchasing an annual membership from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
- The second is to purchase an SMWS bottle that costs more than $180. That first year of membership is included in that purchase.
But what do we taste? We single casks bottled at cask strength like this for the most part, which are codified numerically and given fanciful names to entice you without overtly revealing which distillery the dram came from.
Let's break this SMWS 18.60 down to give an example. If you look at the actual bottle or the web page full of this bottle’s information, you will find that the name of the distillery is not listed anywhere. The information you are looking for is codified in that series of numbers.
The SMWS has an ongoing numerical list of distilleries it has bottled over its 40+ year history. The first distillery it ever bottled was Glenfarclas, which is classified as distillery 1. Glenlivet was the 2nd distillery to be bottled, so it is distillery 2. Bowmore is 3, Highland Park is 4, Auchentoshan is 5, and so on. The SMWS is up past distillery 155 as I write this. That number is for single malt whisky from Milk & Honey distillery in Tel Aviv, Israel, by the way.
Back to this bottle of SMWS 18.60. Distillery 18 is Inchgower Distillery, meaning Inchgower was the 18th distillery to ever be bottled by the SMWS. The .60 means that this bottle was the 60th cask of Inchgower/distillery 18 to be bottled by the SMWS. Make sense?
Inchgower is apparently Gaelic for “Isle of Goats”, so apparently that must be where Wayne Gretzky, Tom Brady, and Michael Jordan hale from. Or it is just an island with actual goats. The real answer has been lost in the sands of time or something. Bad jokes aside, Inchgower’s official founding dates back to 1871. It was built to replace another distillery at the time, called Tochineal Distillery. Tochineal itself operated between 1825 and 1871. It was shut down, and its distillery equipment was moved to the newly founded Inchgower by then owners Alexander Wilson & Company.
Inchgower’s Single Malt has been displayed prominently in Bell’s Blended Scotch, the distillery was purchased by Arthur Bell and Sons back in 1938. Inchgower today is a middle-ish sized distillery owned by Diageo. It does not get many official bottlings, and those that it does do not make their way to Canada. We do see sporadic independent bottlings of Inchgower, and we currently seem to be getting a steadier stream of them than we have seen over the past half decade or so.
The distillery is located just south of the town of Buckie — about halfway between Elgin and Banff and near the coast along the North Sea. Glenglassaugh Distillery is about a 15-minute drive east, taking the A98 further along the coastline. Strathisla Distillery is a 17 to 20-minute drive to the south, depending on which road you take.
We have featured Inchgower twice before in past KWM Whisky Calendars, both a while back and both from bottlings done by Gordon & MacPhail: once in 2015 and again in 2016. Stylistically, Inchgower is a bit of an anomaly – at least to me. It typically features a grain driven but hard mineral focused style with a touch of saltiness, a dry spiciness, and often a bit of smoke.
Will any of that style be present in this dram, or will this tasting make me out to be a liar? Let’s find out!
Scotch Malt Whisky Society 18.60 — SUPPING SHERRY FROM POLISHED WOODEN CUPS – 55.5%
SMWS bottle info:
This 15 year old Speysider spent 11 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead before being transferred to a 1st fill oloroso hogshead, and was bottled at 55.5%.
SMWS Tasting Panel’s Tasting Note
“Someone must have lit a scented candle; the fragrance was warm, homey and comforting, of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Other aromas were of pecan pie, frangipane and oranges in caramel brandy syrup. On the palate, we found dark chocolate-covered brazil nuts, chocolate spread on burnt toast, pork crackling and mushrooms sautéed in herb butter.
After reduction, we discovered black olive tapenade, sherry balsamic vinegar and a glass of rich, sweet vermouth. To taste, one Panelist imagined supping oloroso sherry from a castanet while others had a marinated and grilled octopus salad. Following 11 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a 1st fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.”
Evan’s Tasting Note
Nose: Earthy, woody, and full of sherry. Notes of heavily steeped orange pekoe tea, wine gums mixed with black licorice, nutmeg, cloves, new leather shoes, and root beer.
Palate: Savoury with sweet notes along for the ride. Mulled cider, honey, roasted chestnuts, cherry compote, prunes, salty Dutch licorice, and molasses.
Finish: Savoury and nutty with a touch of dried fruit, seasoning salt and dry sherry.
Comment: A savoury and lightly spiced dram full of sherry notes with an untamed edge. I don’t know if this gets me closer to pinning down Inchgower’s style, but it is a fun dram that takes you on a tour full of flavour.
Cheers,
Evan
Playing catch-up on our 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar?
You can find the rest of the blog posts here!
This entry was posted in Whisky, Tastings, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Whisky Calendars, Distillery, Independent Bottler, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM 2024 Not An Advent Calendar Tastings
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