HERESY HISTORY
Mischievous malts
We’ve come a long way since the first clear glass bottle, Exotic Cargo, appeared on our shelves in 2017. Defying conventions and sparking a lively debate, the Society’s first ‘Heresy’ small-batch release was somewhat of a bold move. A blended malt from the Society? That was bound to ruffle a few feathers. Now with 30 releases, these experimental drams are a popular choice in the Society’s offerings. ‘Heresy’ is a whisky journey that proves sometimes it’s worth choosing path less trodden, as Julien Willems writes
ABOVE: Batch #25 Citrus Reveries
Batch #21 Dunnage nougat Category: Single malt Age: 9-years-old
A gentle and easy drinking expression, this whisky is a masterclass in American and French oak toasting and charring. It showcases the superb wealth that American oak heavy toast medium char (HTMC) hogsheads can bring, and combines these elements with the rich, spicy and sweet flavours of heavily and medium toasted (not charred) barriques in both American and French oaks. Head of whisky creation, Euan Campbell, made HTMC hogsheads a signature cask type for the Society and to this day continues to experiment with other oak species and heat treatments. If you’re interested in the flavours that can be achieved with oak alone, this is one to try and get your hands on.
Batch #22 Scarlett marzipan Category: Sherry cask-matured blended malt Age: 9-years-old
This blended malt combines Speyside and Highland whiskies fully matured in sherry seasoned butts. It explores the balance between the influences of refill and first fill casks. Sherry butts usually provide a smoother, rounder maturation than hogsheads, as they are twice the volume of the latter. This results in a proportionally lower interface between wood and whisky. The trade-off is that it’ll generally require a bit more patience to get more maturity, though this is debatable because it really depends on how active the cask is. This expression also combines Spanish and American oak influences, with the American oak providing sweeter creamy vanilla flavours, and the Spanish oak adding a good whack of spice and chewy texture to the whisky.
Batch #23 Shimmering silk Collaboration with Dunville's Irish Whiskey Category: Sherry cask-matured single malt Irish whiskey Age: 11-years-old
Shimmering silk is the first Irish whiskey to enter the ‘Heresy’ range and is the product of a collaboration with Dunville’s. In total, the casks making up this single malt matured for eight years in first fill bourbon barrels and were characterised by flavours of fresh apple and starburst sweets. After this, the casks were transferred to Pedro Ximénez (PX) hogsheads for the remainder of their maturation which added much darker, richer notes and sweetness. There’s a large sherry influence without it being a ‘sherry bomb’, one for the lovers of sweet, fruity and mellow whiskies with a darker side.
Batch #24 Underwater barbecue
Category: Peated blended malt
Age: 12-years-old
It’s rare you get the chance to look back through a whisky’s family tree, but Batch #24 Underwater barbecue does just that. If you think back to earlier years in this range, Batch #8 Battle axe, was one of the series’ first peat heavy representatives. Not all of the blended malt used to make Batch #8’s recipe was used in crafting this briny concoction. Some of it was set aside to mature further and later combined with other casks to create Batch #11 The tar pit. The remaining whisky after Batch #11, then rested further before being combined with other casks to form the massive Batch #15 Smokus fructicosus. The story repeated itself once more and the remnants of that expression were again laid down in cask before being combined with Islay and Orkney casks to give you Batch #24 Underwater barbecue. It’s fascinating to trace the ancestry of this whisky to the early days of the Society’s foray into peated blended malts in clear glass. It’s got sherry, it’s peated, it’s coastal and it’s briny. One for the Islay fans.
Batch #25 Citrus reveries
Collaboration with King's Inch Category: Single malt Scotch whisky
Age: 8-years-old
Citrus Reveries is the result of a collaboration between the SMWS and our friends at Courageous Spirits. This Lowland dram is as welcoming as its homestead and has no shortage of zingy flavour, with the use of a yeast called DY502 producing subtle fruity and malty flavours. The distillate stems from a narrow cut, or in layman’s terms, a short interval where the spirit is collected during distillation to obtain very specific flavours. It’s a clean, balanced spirit in quite active bourbon casks. Although now a bit less relevant, the concept of whisky region seems to apply here with this first ever Lowland malt in our Heresy series ticking all the boxes on the Scotch Whisky Association’s definition of regional whisky characteristics. I’ll save you a trip on your search engine, it goes as follows: “Soft and smooth malts are characteristic of this region, offering a gentle, elegant palate reminiscent of grass, honeysuckle, cream, ginger, toffee, toast and cinnamon. The whiskies are often lighter in character and perfect for pre-dinner drinks.” Now soak it all in lemon, lime and grapefruit and there you have it. A picture-perfect Lowland malt, that’s a real summer sipper.
ABOVE: Batch #23 Shimmering silk
PICTURED: Batch #27 Gastronomic fusion
PICTURED: Batch #26 Spanish splendour
Batch #26 Spanish splendour
Category: Sherry cask-matured Highland single malt
Age: 10-years-old
This single malt achieved a full and decadent flavour thanks to the cask make up in its recipe which started by filling seven bourbon hogsheads in September 2013 before letting the spirit mature in these American oak vessels until May 2021. Four of them were then rehomed into fresh Spanish oak oloroso hogsheads and the remaining three in equally fresh American oak oloroso hogsheads. These whiskies then remained in their new homes for three years, before being combined for Batch #26 Spanish splendour.
The sherry influence is strong in this expression, but the interplay between the different oak characteristics is quite something too. Spanish oak brings in cocoa dusted chocolate truffles, and some slightly salty spiciness. These aromas and flavours typically accompany the more robustly tannic Spanish oak casks. Whereas, at the other end of the aromatic spectrum, the aromas of rich creamy custard and flavours of crema Catalana are a reminder that this whisky spent roughly seven years in bourbon casks, and that three of the final casks were made from American oak.
Batch #27 Gastronomic fusion
Category: Peated single grain Scotch whisky Age: 8-years-old
This expression comes from a distillery in Western Scotland that produces different types of whisky, from malt to grain, and in various types of stills. In this case the whisky is single grain, but not because it is distilled from a mash of non-malt grain. This offering is made 100 per cent from malted barley, however it is distilled in a column still. To be a single malt, this whisky would have to be distilled in pot stills at least twice. From the five casks of single grain whisky used to create this offering, two were grain whiskies distilled from peated malt. That’s something that you really don’t see very often.
Batch #27 Gastronomic fusion has so many unusual traits that comparing it to traditional grain whiskies would be futile. From only using malted barley, to being distilled in a copper column still and yielding a spirit of just 85% abv. This is substantially lower than other well-known grain whiskies which are distilled closer to 94% abv.
This lower abv leaves a lot more room for flavour-bearing molecules to go through the still. Given how flavoursome and unusual this is, it's one of those expressions you really don’t want to miss out on.
Batch #28 Spruce on the loose
Collaboration with Wasted Degrees Brewing Category: Blended malt Scotch whisky
Age: 17-years-old
With the help of Wasted Degrees Brewing, this bottling is one of the most elaborate releases in the entire ‘Heresy’ range to date. After acquiring freshly emptied casks from the Society, Wasted Degrees used them to mature a very special ale. They fashioned a dark stout beer, using spruce tips rather than hops to flavour the batch of ale. Towering over most UK ales at a robust 10% abv, it was a treacly, sweet, spicy and astonishingly fresh citrussy stout. Once emptied, the casks were shipped back to our warehouse with some urgency, and in November 2022, whisky from bourbon casks was transferred into these spruce tip casks. And there it remained for over 21 months, soaking in the sweetness of the remaining stout and some lovely wood influence. After tasting a sample, we decided it was more than ready, it was simply fantastic.
Batch #29 Caramel cascade
Collaboration with Dunville's
Category: Sherry cask-matured Irish single malt whiskey
Age: 12-years-old
Caramel cascade is the product of our second collaboration with our friends at Dunville’s Irish Whiskey. Batch #23 Shimmering silk, used whiskey matured in PX sherry casks, the sweetest sherry there is, and was incredibly well received by our members. But for this batch, we decided to try a different type of sherry cask, Palo Cortado (PC). Whiskey in PC casks ages differently, it remains very fresh and fruity even after a decade in cask. The spirit this expression is made of exhibits rich green apple flavours in its youth, but ages with class, turning tropical as years go by.
But there’s also a good deal of dairy and toffee chocolate flavour. This is a more adult whisky than its predecessor. It requires a bit of patience to really appreciate its meandering flavours and aromatic complexity.
ABOVE: Batch #29 Caramel cascade
Batch #30 Skooshy stroopwafel
Category: Sherry cask-matured single malt Scotch
Age: 11-years-old
It all started with bourbon hogsheads containing whisky distilled on 8 April 2013 in the same Speyside distillery. After finding their way to our warehouse, these casks remained there in a quiet slumber until they were roused in summer 2021. Upon assessing them, we found they were showcasing some very pleasant fruitiness, gentle fresh cereals and stone fruit sweetness. While this was undeniably a good thing, we were looking for something different. We realised these casks would not provide the deeper, darker, and opulent flavours we were after. This was far from disappointing, though.
It was actually expected, because this is not the kind of profile usually associated with bourbon hogsheads. But we had a plan.
We combined these into four fresh European oak sherry butts from Tonelería Juan Pino in the south of Spain, seasoned in the sherry triangle for 13 months with sweet syrupy PX wine. And there we let them rest for the remainder of their maturation.
CONTINUING ON THE PATH LESS TRODDEN
Looking back at this unique range, we’ve seen how fun and fascinating it can be to walk the path less trodden. But now after 30 releases, it does feel like we’re starting to know this particular path quite well, and we’re liking it too! We’ll always look at our single cask releases as the pillar of our identity. But beyond every carefully curated ‘Heresy’ bottling, there is always a very important hint of mischief.
Looking to catch up on the first 20 ‘Heresy‘ releases? Batches #13 - #20: https://unfiltered.smws.com/unfiltered-08-2023/more-heresy Batches #1 - #12: https://unfiltered.smws.com/unfiltered-11-2021/heresy-at-the-society/