Into the light

You should know by now that we’re always up for doing something a little different at the SMWS. If that means taking a bunch of glasses, coating them in different materials and using them for a blindfolded tasting, count us in. As part of our ongoing exploration of whisky and the senses, Tasting Panel chair Kami Newton put the concept of texture to the test for this month’s Unfiltered, with some intriguing results and a lot of fun with two adventurous Society members who were very much up for the experiment.

We’re also celebrating summer this month with Julien Willems’ deep dive into our Light & Delicate flavour profile, the perfect whisky for open-air drams or cocktails. Helen Brownless from our DRAM-cierge team is also calling on her cocktail experience for a fantastic selection of mixed drinks to celebrate various national days around the world this month.

If you want to not only explore flavour in your whisky, but find a way to identify it, our founder Pip Hills has the fascinating story of his Scotch Whisky Directory and how he developed a new way to categorise what’s in our glasses. We also visit another outstanding SMWS partner bar in The Netherlands, and delve into the anatomy of that essential component in creating any whisky – the humble cask.

There’s all that and more on the following pages – we hope it keeps you going throughout July, with some essential summer reading to go with your sunshine drams.

Cheers,