Beyond borders

If you’ve been a member of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society for a while now, you’ll already know that September is a huge month in our calendar. For our more recent recruits, welcome to our annual Gathering. Every year, we put on events, tastings, parties and more that bring together our members around the world – and for our 40th anniversary year, we’re going bigger than ever.

But how do you connect a community of members that now spans so many countries across the planet? The answer this year is to invite everyone to take part in an attempt to set the record for the largest ever online whisky tasting, which you can read all about – and find out how to get involved – in this month’s magazine.

Elsewhere, Julien Willems reminds us of how international the Society has become, not only in our membership, but in our pursuit of fantastic whiskies from beyond Scotland’s borders. And if distilleries from elsewhere in the world can produce great whisky, who’s to say that great rum can’t be produced right here in Scotland? Mads Schmoll paid a visit to Matugga rum’s distillery near Edinburgh to find out more about their inspiring story and sample some rum that will be coming members’ way in the future.

Finally, our Aussie ambassador Scott Mansfield has provided the perfect example of how connected we are around the world through a passion for whisky – don’t miss his feature about returning to his family’s Scottish roots, along with a Society bottling of Australian whisky, to the place where there are records of whisky being distilled as far back as the late 15th century.

Wherever you are, I hope you can join our world record tasting attempt or take part in one of our many Gathering month events.

Cheers,