PARTNER BAR AND SMWS SPAIN
La Whiskeria, Barcelona
PORTRAIT PHOTOS: PETER SANDGROUND
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has now landed in Spain, with partner bars opening in Barcelona and Madrid. Unfiltered editor Richard Goslan paid a visit to the Society’s inaugural event at Barcelona partner bar La Whiskeria to find out what’s in store
It’s a sultry summer’s night in Barcelona, but at La Whiskeria there’s still a devoted clientele seeking out a dram or a long drink – and now there’s a growing selection of SMWS bottlings among the 850 or so other whiskies on offer.
I’m one of the lucky dozen attending the launch night of SMWS Spain in what is the Society’s first partner bar in the country, a beautiful and spacious emporium celebrating everything about the world whisky in general and Scotch in particular.
ABOVE: Diego Borràs Moreno
Our host for the night is Diego Borràs Moreno, who’s heading up SMWS Spain. He tells me that the launch has been a long time coming – but expectations and excitement are high.
“It’s about time the SMWS came to Spain!” he says. “I’ve had this project in mind for years, and then the pandemic hit, but here we are at last. Now our aim is to bring whisky to the people here and make sure we’re part of the growing interest in whisky in Spain, we want to be a catalyst for that.
“You can see from tonight how diverse the crowd is who have come along to the tasting, but everybody was talking and sharing the experience together.
“I was lucky enough when I was over in Edinburgh with the SMWS EU ambassadors recently to have dinner with Pip Hills, and this is exactly how I felt he wanted a Society tasting to be about, so I’m very pleased.”
With the Society’s presence already established at La Whiskeria in Barcelona, Diego is now planning to set up further partner bar relationships in Madrid, with the locations La Tuerta, Angelita and Saddle.
“We’ve already identified two other cities in Spain, but first we want to make sure everything is working smoothly in Madrid and Barcelona.”
“We’ll have a little bit of a different approach in Madrid, where two of the bars are already recognised as among the top five cocktail bars in Spain, while the other is a Michelin-starred restaurant. Whisky doesn’t necessarily have to be something that you drink on its own, so we’ll be looking at interesting food pairings and whisky as a cocktail component.
“We’ve already identified two other cities in Spain, but first we want to make sure everything is working smoothly in Madrid and Barcelona.”
First impressions with the members I meet at La Whiskeria are very positive as they enjoy a six-dram introduction to the wonders of the SMWS, from a Young & Spritely Cask No. 46.112: Innocent sweetness meets citric zest through various flavour profiles to the Peated profile Islay bottling, Cask No. 53.400: Poetry in a glass.
ABOVE: opening night in full swing
All six bottles are now on the shelf of La Whiskeria. Co-owner Kris Cowan tells me he’s looking forward to seeing many more Society bottles take their place next to them.
“We love your whisky and I’ve been wanting to see it in Spain for a long time,” he tells me. “Finally it’s here and now we’d like to build up our collection and see more of your green bottles beautifully lit on the shelf.”
Kris and his team opened this second incarnation of La Whiskeria in July, in the heart of Barcelona’s Eixample district, a short stroll from Plaça de Catalunya and the iconic La Rambla boulevard. The whisky collection had outgrown its previous space, and following the pandemic, Kris saw the need to open up a bigger bar where both locals and tourists could find any whisky to suit their tastes.
“Our original bar was starting to get really busy with lines down the street, and a lot of dedicated whisky drinkers couldn’t get in, so we wanted a bigger place and we wanted more whisky and more customers,” says Kris. “Barcelona doesn’t really do big bars, this is more of a restaurant size, so we’re changing the game here. I think we have the longest cocktail bar in the city, and pretty much the biggest whisky bar in Spain, and our aim is to make this the biggest in Europe as soon as possible. We want to make sure the collection here gives whisky drinkers enough of a reason to come here in the first place and more options for them to find what they’re looking for.”
“Barcelona doesn’t really do big bars, this is more of a restaurant size, so we’re changing the game here. I think we have the longest cocktail bar in the city, and pretty much the biggest whisky bar in Spain”
It’s been quite a journey for Kris as well, who comes to Barcelona from Northumberland via Paisley in Scotland, but he has clearly built a dedicated team of whisky enthusiasts working behind the bar, ready to share their passion with whoever walks through the door.
“The whisky scene is still up and coming here, we’re introducing younger drinkers to whisky, and we’re delighted to talk whisky to everyone who comes in. We’ll have a whisky for every occasion, and even better, we’ll now have SMWS whisky here as well.”
Follow SMWS Spain on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/smws_spain/ and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SMWSSpain
La Whiskeria in Barcelona is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lawhiskeria