FESTIVAL SEASON
CALLING ALL FLAVOUR HUNTERS
The Society has covered all bases during festival month this year. From 12 limited edition festival bottles specially crafted by our Whisky Team, to the Society’s first ever feature length documentary celebrating Scotch & Sherry, find out what’s to come as Duncan Gorman uncovers everything on offer this May.
Cask No. 39.274
MARMALADE PIPE TOBACCO
£106.90
PROFILE Deep, Rich & Dried Fruits REGION Speyside AGE 16 years ABV 57.9% CASK TYPE 1st fill ex-bourbon hogshead
Deliciously sweet aromas encapsulated sugared almonds, marshmallows and red liquorice before fruity notes of dried apricots, ripe apples and sultanas joined pencil shavings and beeswax polish. The palate was a big and chewy affair as figs, dates and toffee collided with pipe tobacco mixed with marmalade dusted with cinnamon, cocoa and a splash of oloroso.
Water brought out oxidised sherry notes of hazelnuts and walnuts with crème caramel and the oily character of cured ham. The palate was now much creamier, as milk chocolate and treacle-coated raisins, watermelon and burnt marshmallows combined. After 13 years in a bourbon hogshead, this was transferred to a first fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.
SMALL BATCH
UNDERWATER BARBECUE
£70.00
PROFILE Blended Malt AGE 12 years ABV 50.0% CASK TYPE 1st fill ex-bourbon barrels, American oak oloroso hogsheads & 2nd fill ex-oloroso hogsheads
This small-batch blended malt was created by bringing together the worlds of bourbon and oloroso cask maturation, along with spirit from the islands of Orkney and Islay. This had a bountiful aroma at first, one chock full of smoke-laced flowers, liquorice, smouldering heather, sweeter sherry impressions and singed orange peel. We also found deeper tones of barbecue smoke, coconut shavings, suncream and silky trails of distant peat smoke.
Water brought wet moss, sandalwood, shoreline freshness, wet seaweed and wood-smoked ham. The neat palate balanced sweetness and salinity very evenly, with rich umami broths, charred shellfish, dark chocolate-coated stem ginger, salted caramel and smoked butter. With reduction came seawater, soy sauce, peat embers, cloves, and fragrant wood smoke from a beach bonfire.
Distillery 4 Rare Release
TAKE ME TO THE CHIPPY
£195.00
PROFILE Oily & Coastal REGION Highland AGE 20 years ABV 54.7% CASK TYPE Refill ex-bourbon, HTMC & Oloroso (ex-Islay) hogsheads
Secretly what we all yearn for as we dine black tie, the Panel were handed a burgeoning bag of chippy chips with salt and a dash of balsamic, topped with crispy seaweed and chilli jam. It’ll be all right on the night, after all. The palate of this paper-wrapped meal was full of seaweed, sunflower oil and salt-encrusted potato chips, with a side of mussels poached in 80 shilling ale and clementine juice.
Water served to add a squeeze of lemon, buttered corn bread and a bowl of crab and wakame salad, leading the Panel to extol its taffy-like texture and full body.
SCOTCH AND SHERRY
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
This month sees the launch of the Society’s first-ever documentary, telling the story of sherry casks from the forests of Galicia to the cooperages and bodegas of the ‘sherry triangle’ in Andalucía. Unfiltered editor Richard Goslan produced Scotch & Sherry: A Flavour Odyssey and explains here what to expect, and how it all came together
SMWS MEMBER PROFILE
AN ISLAY ADVENTURE
After 22 hours on a plane, a missed connection, seven hours of tense driving down narrow roads and an unexpected ferry cancellation, SMWS member Jay Baris and his son Ben learned that visiting Islay from New York demands both patience and ingenuity. Yet, the question looms: was it worth it? According to Jay, the answer is a resounding yes!