Member delights

I had the pleasure recently to meet Society members from all over the world, who had won our incredible competition to travel to The Vaults to take part in our first-ever cask selection process for our annual Gathering event that takes place in September.

The lucky members had come from 13 countries to take part: from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and the UK. And I’m delighted that one of them, Samantha Rothbart, chose to write about the experience, which you can read all about in this issue of Unfiltered. There’s no way of putting it better than Sam does in the conclusion to her fantastic article: “The Society provides a home for whisky lovers from all walks of life. It is a cosy hub for friends and like-minded enthusiasts to meet. A place for solitude-seekers to relax with a meditative dram. A destination for intrepid adventurers to discover new flavours…at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, we come for the whisky, but we stay for the company.”

Enjoy the feature for yourselves, and look out for the casks that Sam and her international friends selected when they arrive in various markets around the world for our Gathering celebrations in September.

Elsewhere this month we find out how a spell working at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society inspired Craig Johnstone, who has now taken on the role of master blender for The Famous Grouse, and we take a tour of Falkirk distillery in the company of co-founders, father and daughter team George and Fiona Stewart.

We also delve into the Society’s lengthy history of managing the maturation of our stocks with various forms of additional maturation, and reflect on another aspect of our ‘maverick history’ when we first started to bottle single grain whisky – despite what our founder Pip Hills had once had to say about it.

Finally, we take a look ahead to what’s happening with the Society during the upcoming whisky festival month, and share an overview of our fantastic network of partner bars where you can find Society bottlings, and a warm welcome to SMWS members, all over the world.

Wherever this finds you, dive in and enjoy,

Cheers!

Richard