Birds of a feather sip together
www.smws.ca
Issue 13 October 2012
Bottling List
Outturn
www.smws.ca
Each Society bottling is unique. And each can be identified by its markings. The
tasting notes give you an insight into the characteristics of each whisky, and are
the best place to start.
You may find yourself drawn to a ‘Femme fatale’ or have a preference for ‘Soft light
at sunset’. Maybe your instincts lead you to a dram that’s ‘Immense, manly, meaty
and peaty’ or perhaps akin to ‘Boiled sweets & grapefruit peel.’
These curious descriptors are your best clue to what you’ll find within each bottle,
and are at the heart of The Society’s raison d’être.
With The Society’s monthly selection of single cask malts it’s not surprising that
some members find it hard to focus on their perfect bottlings. Thankfully it’s not
cheating to ask for help. Just call Kensington Wine Market at 403-283-8000
(within Calgary) or at 1-888-283-9004 (outside Calgary) or email us at
[email protected] or [email protected] for advice of an
expert nature.
How to use Outturn
Welcome to the October 2012 Outturn!
outturn n. 1 The number of Society bottles produced from a single cask. Varies
from cask to cask. A finite number that will, sooner or later, run out.
2 The name given to Society bottling lists, containing Tasting Notes for each
recently released Society bottling of which only a limited number are ever available
(see above).
2
www.smws.ca 3
Speyside (Spey)
Speyside (Spey)
Colour: Brazilian suntan Date distilled: September 1983
Cask: First fill sherry hogshead Alcohol: 55.4%
Age: 28 years Outturn: 134 bottles
Mulled cider & beef goulash
Cask No. Savoury, spicy aromas of beef goulash, Night nurse, cranberry concentrate,
maple-cured bacon, nutmeg, root beer, red grapes, Stollen, lamb gravy, caraway
and rye bread made us all hungry. The palate, not as savoury as expected was
thick with cedarwood, spiced apple tobacco and mulled cider. With water we
now smelled celery, mushrooms, plum chutney, sesame, roast turkey &
redcurrant jelly although a sweetness of wild strawberries. To taste it was now
minty, dry and chewy with a spiced milky coffee and musty note. We all agreed it
was better neat. From the first purpose built distillery in the twentieth century.
105.16 Bottle price
$200.99
In place of mulled wine Drinking tip:
Low
outturn!
106.18
Bottled essence of summer
Cask No. Our noses found poignant floral perfumes, shrubberies and pine tree freshness.
We also detected ripe fruits (apple, mango), candles, cinnamon, clove and
honey on buttered toast. The palate was chewy and delicious; fragrant wood,
flowers and tropical fruits (lychee, apricot, passion fruit) mingled with sweet
toffee flavours to draw sighs of contentment from the panel. The reduced nose,
with tutti-frutti ice-cream, lime, sawn wood and aromatherapy oils made us
think of warm summer nights. The palate now carried rose and lemon-flavoured
Turkish Delight with stem ginger spicy warmth in the tail-flick. The distillery
houses the spiritual home of Johnnie Walker.
Bottle price
$197.99
Perfect dram for the first day of your holiday Drinking tip:
Colour: Yellowish amber Date distilled: November 1984
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 52.6%
Age: 27 years Outturn: 197 bottles
First appearance
from distillery
106!
When you need a ‘quickie’ Drinking tip:
Colour: Pale wood sap Date distilled: March 2005
Cask: Refill barrel, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 62.7%
Age: 7 years Outturn: 170 bottles
www.smws.ca 4
Highland (Island)
Straightforward, sweet & spicy
Cask No. Yes it was young – but perfectly enjoyable – we nosed dried grass, flowers,
herbs, creosote and soft tar (perhaps in a farmyard context?); also lemon
sponge, vanilla, pepper and chocolate Easter eggs in boxes. The unreduced
palate was pretty straightforward, sweet and spicy; specifically milk chocolate
and white pepper, along with grass and paper. The reduced nose offered green
grapes, melted vanilla ice-cream, some salt and a ‘scorched boiler-suit’. That
simple balance (don’t look for much complexity) also inhabited the reduced
palate – plum jam, syrup, MDF furniture, ‘licking a TV screen’ and some spicy
warmth to finish. From Mull’s only distillery.
42.10
Speyside (Lossie)
Yummy & mouth-watering
Cask No. The inviting nose was intensely floral (chrysanthemums, dahlias, elderflower,
pot-pourri) but an array of other aromas (mocha, almond cakes, Crunchie bars,
painted wood, blueberry bubblegum) suggested a coffee shop and book shop
combination. The palate was rich and warm, giving thick heather honey, sweet
coconut, Sunday roast, flower salad and varnished wood – we were bowled
over. The reduced nose continued beautifully perfumed with the coconut of
gorse flowers and sweet and sour Peking duck. The reduced palate became
yummy and mouth-watering, with vanilla, meadowsweet and perfumed
elderflower champagne. The distillery, dating from 1824, sits on the eastern
edge of Elgin.
39.83 Bottle price
$208.99
To share with best friends Drinking tip:
Colour: Rich buttery gold Date distilled: October 1982
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 53.9%
Age: 28 years Outturn: 197 bottles
First
appearance
from
distillery
42!
Bottle price
$139.99
A captain of industry
Cask No. Industrial bath salts, carbolic, lanolin and sheep dip, then bog myrtle, thyme,
heather flowers, chopped apples and celery. Unlit fireworks in their box and cigar
ash. Sweet, clean and lightly cooling to taste (menthol cigarettes), with ash in the
finish. Water simplifies the aroma and makes it more grubby/industrial – ‘well
used electrical equipment’, minerals, batteries, soot. An oily texture and a sweet
taste: smoky, with coal dust in the aftertaste and finish. We imagine the
operators contemplating the Paps of Jura through the massive windows of their
still house.
53.159 Bottle price
$142.99
Watching the workers, cigar in hand Drinking tip:
Colour: Pale green-gold Date distilled: August 1995
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 57%
Age: 16 years Outturn: 287 bottles
5 www.smws.ca
Islay
While cleaning fishing tackle or watching Drinking tip:
Colour: Lemon yellow Date distilled: April 2002
Cask: Refill barrel, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 58.4%
Age: 9 years Outturn: 230 bottles
Campeltown
Wench with a wrench
Cask No. On the nose a fairy cake, vanilla slice, maple syrup sweetness gradually gave way
to nuts, apples, Dr Peppers and lilies; eventually, black olives and linseed or even
fish oil. The unreduced palate was waxy, mouth-coating and robust; with its
diesel smoke, fudge and black pepper – we imagined ‘a feisty wench with a
wrench’ – not for the faint-hearted. The reduced nose had burnt sticky toffee
pudding and cherry lips, with oily rags that may even have been ignited! The
palate, with water, was sweet and strange, but interesting (briny lemons, WD40,
fishy fudge and ‘dirty tablet’). From Campbeltown’s lesser-known distillery.
93.52 Bottle price
$102.99
www.smws.ca
Grain
Sweet & sour melange
Cask No. The nose balanced toffee, marzipan, glacé cherries and lemon puff biscuits
against some spritzy, slightly acidic sherbet; we also found waxed paper,
hazelnuts, greenery and geraniums. The unreduced palate had sharp, tropical
fruits and lemon peel; also new wood and then something spicy and savoury. The
reduced nose suggested peaches, cheesecake, woodland paths and a ruined
castle by a lily-pad loch – quite a landscape. The reduced palate seemed a
reasonable mixture of sweetness and astringency – a sweet and sour mélange of
toffee, pineapple, green sappy wood with some white pepper spicy heat in the
finish. Captain Haddock’s favourite dram, apparently.
G9.1
While watching, or reading, Tintin Drinking tip:
Colour: Sunset gold Date distilled: September 2000
Cask: Refill barrel, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 57.8%
Age: 11 years Outturn: 187 bottles
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How to order from Friday October 5th
Through The Scotch Malt Whisky Society website at www.smws.ca, which will
then take you through to the Kensington Wine Market website for final purchase.
Through the Kensington Wine Market website at
www.kensingtonwinemarket.com - search for ‘The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’
under the Scotch tab.
By phoning Andrew Ferguson at the Kensington Wine Market at (403) 283-8000
(within Calgary) or at 1-888-283-9004 (outside Calgary).
In person at Kensington Wine Market, located at
1257 Kensington Road NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 3P8.
Remember, you have to be a member to
purchase, so please have your membership number handy!
First
bottling
from
distillery
G9.1!
Bottle price
$103.99
Not for swigging, glugging or knocking back! 7
But not forever!
Here’s a chance to get your hands on some rare treats from our bottle bank of
past Society releases. Remember, Society whiskies are bottled from single casks,
so they don’t last forever. As the number of remaining drams decreases, their
rarity increases. Fortunately for you, the price doesn’t!
Past Bottlings
Speyside (Lossie)
Entrancing & delightful
Cask No. The nose was entrancing and delightful! Honeycomb, marmalade and cherry
liqueur; exotic fruits and flowers; polished mahogany and leather. The palate was
lively but never frivolous – brown sugar in espresso coffee dregs and Grand
Marnier flavours mingling and tingling in the mouth, “everlasting joy” exclaimed
one panellist. On the reduced nose, the orange theme developed even further –
candied orange dipped in luxurious chocolate, Jaffa cakes, orange jelly – also a
slight whisper of cardamom or something medicinal. The reduced palate had a
special, urbane, adult sweetness; toffee and spice and all things nice.
The distillery is sometimes flooded by the Lossie.
35.44 Bottle price
$253.99
After dinner - preferably wearing a dinner jacket Drinking tip:
35 years
old!
Low
outturn! Colour: Mandarin mahogany Date distilled: January 1975
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 55%
Age: 35 years Outturn: 167 bottles
www.smws.ca 8
Speyside (Lossie)
Highland (Northern)
The femme fatale
Cask No. With the initial smell, she came out of her shell, and still she promised more.
Peaches, coffee and spice were there to entice, and yet she promised more. The
flavour neat, had woodiness and heat, all the while she’s promising more. Sweet
cherry lips, plum brandy on ships, again she’s promising more. Water brought
milkshake, vanilla ice cream (no flake), and still she promised more. Toffee, nou-
gat, nuts and soap, on our tongues gave us hope. Surely, there’s some more?
Dear drinker take heed, of her last victim’s greed, the fellow begged for more. He
took her to task, and fell in his glass, Drink her if you dare!
39.86 Bottle price
$159.99
Drink at your peril, as a gift to yourself! Drinking tip:
Colour: Sunbed tan Date distilled: October 1990
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 45.5%
Age: 21 years Outturn: 217 bottles
Men beware!
Massage in a bottle
Cask No. Initial essences of beeswax and guitar polish led the panel down an extremely
aromatic path. Potpourri, scented candles and orange oil tickled our olfactory
senses, fresh laundry (maybe towels) caused us to sink into our seats. Lavender
and orange blossom emerged on the palate, coating the mouth with a waxy
chocolaty finish. Water heightened our spiritual experience as the room filled
with incense, hand cream, jasmine, pear drops and ripe peaches. The flavour
expanded to encapsulate vanilla, white chocolate and waves of oranges and
watermelons. We emerged from this dram relaxed and sweetly sedate.
26.86
A dram to unwind with Drinking tip:
Colour: Flat ginger ale Date distilled: August 1990
Cask: Refill barrel, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 50.5%
Age: 21 years Outturn: 182 bottles
Bottle price
$160.99
9 Not for swigging, glugging or knocking back!
Highland (Northern)
Almost
gone!
Only two
left!
Drinking tip: After a long, wet walk
Colour: Pale gold Date distilled: November 1995
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 55.1%
Age: 16 years Outturn: 244 bottles
Smoker’s tooth powder
Cask No. Fresh and lightly maritime – salt crystals, seaweed, mineralic – with some
fragrant dried-floral or mixed dried herbal notes, becoming faintly medicinal and
peaty. Eucryl Tooth Powder – check it out! Sweet and citric to taste, with a smoky
finish: ‘minty chewing tobacco’, commented one panel member. With water,
solvent notes emerge, but also dried fruits - ‘sultanas in alcohol’, Madeira cake –
then bath salts, Refreshers (sherbet sweets) and burnt eucalyptus leaves. Sweet,
fresh and slightly salty to taste, with a whiff of smoke in the finish; maritime
overall, with minty notes. An appealing example of Michael Jackson’s ‘Great
All-Rounder’.
4.162 Bottle price
$139.99
Highland (Islands)
With crêpes, or any other dessert Drinking tip:
Colour: Ginger gold with orange lights Date distilled: November 2001
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 61.2%
Age: 10 years Outturn: 271 bottles
Crêpes Suzettes & coffee dregs
Cask No. Reminiscent of Calvados and Grand Marnier, the nose delivered toffee apples,
pineapple, Crêpes Suzettes, Werthers originals, Edinburgh rock, custard slices and
Moffat toffees. The unreduced palate exploded with warm ginger and orange
flavours (if ever a whisky lived up to its colour!) then superior tequila and Madeira
wine in the finish. The reduced nose offered dried fruits, ginger wine, lots of citrus
(lemon meringue pie, oranges in syrup, pineapple) and caramel gradually
emerging. The reduced palate, still big, chewy and beautifully sweet, had sugary
dregs of coffee, chocolate gingers, then a dry sherry aftertaste rounding off this fine
Tain dram.
125.62 Bottle price
$112.99
10 www.smws.ca
Highland (Island)
Sugared almonds in a mattress factory
Cask No. The intriguing nose delivered dried fruits and mixed nuts, toffee, green malt,
mouse-trap cheese with a black, sooty fireplace grate somewhere in the
background. The palate was pleasantly sweet yet robust – with moist iced
gingerbread, liquorice, salt, smoke and chalky, limestone, earthy elements. The
reduced nose turned somewhat fatty and savoury, like leg of lamb or the
wrapping of a haggis supper – also cigarette papers and a mineral beach, with
salt marshes nearby. The palate now floral and sweet suggested sugared
almonds and iced gems in a coil-sprung mattress factory. The distillery, designed
by architect William Delmé-Evans, was built around 1960.
To take in a hip flask up the Paps of Jura - or any
other hill
Drinking tip:
Colour: Old gold Date distilled: September 1988
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 51.7%
Age: 23 years Outturn: 235 bottles
31.23 Bottle price
$169.99
Islay
A changeling
Cask No. All malts change in the glass - this one more than most! It begins clean, fresh
and mineralic, with a soapy edge, then gains soft toffee and charcoal, with
heather pollen, then moves towards treacle toffee, dentists’ mouthwash and…
prawn cocktail crisps! The taste, at this stage, is sweet, salty and tarry (toasted
barley; a hot kiln), with smoky bacon crisps. Water raises exhaust fumes, railway
engines, Hippie Afghan coats, goats, a smoking Bakelite plug, Plasticine, melting
vinyl records, bonfire ash; the taste now soft, sweet, salty, clay-like, with malt in
the ashy finish. From the Prince of Wales’ favourite distillery.
29.113
Bottle price
$115.99
Contemplating the sunset Drinking tip:
Colour: Pale green-gold Date distilled: February 2001
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 57.7%
Age: 10 years Outturn: 275 bottles
Down to
the last
few!
Just 2 bottles
left!
11 Not for swigging, glugging or knocking back!
After dinner dram
Cask No. First impressions are meaty and herbal, roasted lamb with thyme and rosemary,
followed by a maritime freshness of a salty sea breeze and the sweetness of mint
toffee. Undiluted on the palate surprisingly sweet, slightly bitter, like a good
Turkish coffee whilst grilling succulent pork fillets. With water, more sweetness
on the nose is added, vanilla pods and black currants as well as a flinty, chalky
aroma reminding us of Edinburgh rock. The taste develops into a sweet hot
chocolate with a freshness of eucalyptus leaves and the lingering ashy aftertaste
from the bbq last night at ‘the beautiful hollow by the broad bay’.
29.114 Bottle price
$115.99
Instead of a coffee after a bbq on the beach Drinking tip:
Colour: Citrus peel gold Date distilled: February 2001
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 56.1%
Age: 10 years Outturn: 264 bottles
Islay
Rum
Mint humbugs
Cask No. Surprisingly deep and complex for its age, we were transported to a tropical swim-
ming pool at first: plastic flip-flops, wicker sun-loungers, with a dusty note (’chest
of drawers’), then a rush of pumpkin-seed oil, damson vinegar and Cola-cubes…
The taste blows your socks off! Sweet and peppery, after a start of ‘water-wings’.
Water softens the aroma and taste considerably: vanilla fudge, cherry pie and
Canadian cedar (with cherries) on the nose, and a clean, mint humbug,
mentholated (even clove-like) taste. One panellist produced a bottle of Coke and a
lime… Delicious!
R5.1 Bottle price
$131.99
Looking out over azure water Drinking tip:
Colour: Golden syrup Date distilled: January 2002
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 81.3%
Age: 9 years Outturn: 525 bottles
12 www.smws.ca
Cognac
lovers take
note!
Follow us on Twitter at @smwscanada!
Soft, spicy, rich and intense
Cask No. Wonderfully soft and perfumed yet spicy, deep, intense on the nose - hints of
sandlewood, dark cherries, toasted apple, candyfloss, oranges and spices
transported us to a late autumn bonfire (not Guy Fawkes or Halloween though).
On the palate initial intense spicy perfumed woody notes gave way to a soft
creamy taste with a hot spicy almost tannic finish. Water (and it didn’t really need
it) made it waxier with church candles and saddle soap, sweet caramel and rich
apple tarte tatin. To taste it seems even spicy - cinnamon, aniseed and clove but
still very soft and supple with a long sweet unctuous finish.
A4
Bottle price
$170.99
A perfect autumnal dram but would be fantastic as a
digestif Drinking tip:
Colour: Orange copper Date distilled: January 1983
Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 47%
Age: 22 years Outturn: 434 bottles
Armagnac
13 Not for
Upcoming tastings and events!
Monday, October 8 - Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday, October 19 - SMWS Canada’s 1st Anniversary
at Kensington Wine Market!
Saturday, October 20 - SMWS Canada’s First
Edmonton tasting - tell all your friends in Edmonton!!
Friday, November 2 - First Friday at Kensington Wine
Market
Thursday, November 8 - Kensington Wine Market Fall
Whisky Festival
Christmas is coming! Don’t forget that a Society
membership makes a wonderful gift!
Fabulous SMWS whiskies coming soon...
“Jar Jar Binks in trouble again”
“Student party aftermath”
“Venus in furs”
and…
...the first bottling from distillery #2 for the Canadian
branch!
14 www.smws.ca
Don’t forget!
Society tasting glasses available! Fantastic for
enjoying Society single malts (and most others).
$12.00 each
(plus shipping and handling and applicable taxes)
Go to www.smws.ca and click on ‘Dry Goods’
For members only (contents sold separately).
15 Not for swigging, glugging or knocking back!
Coming soon to a mailbox near you (if you’re a member)!
Curious? Read on!
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, founded in 1983 in Edinburgh, Scotland, is the world’s largest
single malt whisky club, with 26,000 members in 16 countries. The Society bottles in excess
of 300 casks each year from up to 128 distilleries, all at cask strength, and
available exclusively to members.
Members also receive The Society’s award winning magazine, Unfiltered, and have access to
member’s venues in Edinburgh, London, Tokyo and elsewhere.
The Canadian branch releases new single malt whiskies every month on the
first Friday of the month (“First Fridays!’).
In Canada, The Society’s exclusive retailer is Kensington Wine Market in Calgary. Membership can be
purchased for $230 plus GST (which includes the new member’s kit, pictured above) by calling
Kensington Wine Market at 403-283-8000 or visiting KWM’s website at www.kensingtonwinemarket.com.
Annual renewals are $120 (plus GST).
Only single cask, single malt whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight
our members are selected, true to our motto:
To leave no nose upturned.
www.smws.ca
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