VALENTINE'S DAY
Celebrating the single life
Forget the cliché of red roses and chocolate this Valentine’s Day, says Mads Schmoll. For her, true romance lies in the exquisite singledom of a one-off Society cask
Valentine’s Day is an odd celebration. Whether you believe it’s linked to the hedonistic ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia or the more commonly accepted martyrdom of an early Christian priest – neither has me convinced that red roses and chocolates are the way forward.
As a kid growing up in America, we shared conversation heart candies, tried to trade off the spicy Red Hots* and distributed paper valentines to classmates. With age, everyone’s taste changes, so if you happen to find yourself less than enamoured with Valentine’s Day, we have an alternative. With this year being the Society’s 40th anniversary, it seems a great time to focus on celebrating singledom – and by that we mean the Society single cask.
ABOVE: a Society cask is filled with new make
Here are some great reasons why the Society single cask is so special…
- Just like the language of love, the language of whisky continues to evolve. The first tasting panels in 1983 began to explore a new language that could describe the flavour of single malt, single cask whisky. It was maverick then and something we continue with our Tasting Panel today. Check out our whisky flavoury glossary to delve further into the language we use.
- There is a flavour profile for everyone. Our 12 profiles cover floral, sweet, spicy, meaty, peaty flavour notes and everything in between. Use them to find what you like or discover something entirely new.
- Society whisky comes to you in its purest form: un-chillfiltered and with no added colour. Our whisky goes from cask to bottle and is bottled just as it comes out of the cask: at cask strength. We also like trying new things. Hear from our Head of Whisky Creation, Euan Campbell about why we sometimes create whisky that doesn’t fall into our single cask or cask strength parameters.
- Our whisky is truly one of a kind. That is the beauty, and some might say tragedy, of it – when it’s gone, it really is gone. If there happen to be only 228 bottles from the cask, once those 228 bottles vanish, there won’t be another whisky like it.
- While saying goodbye to a favourite bottle is hard, the beauty is in the appreciation of what has been enjoyed and the memories that go with it. If nothing else, there is likely to be something equally exciting on the horizon soon.
- It’s not just our membership that is global. We bottle whisky from around the world and have done so since 1988 when we bottled our first ever Irish Single Malt. Today the Society has bottled whiskies from Australia, England, Wales, Japan, USA, Canada, Denmark and beyond. We also bottle single cask spirits including armagnac, cognac, gin, rum, bourbon, rye and corn whiskey for even more flavour adventures.
*A small hard cinnamon sweetie in the US that can be quite fiery.