Into the darkness

No doubt about it…the nights are drawing in here in Scotland, but with the creeping approach of winter, whisky starts to take on a slightly different character. With that in mind, our flavour expert Julien Willems is embracing our Peated profile for October, appreciating the warmth of a fire and exploring how this most elemental of materials is used to shape a flavour that says Scotch like no other.

Elsewhere we’re looking ahead to Hallowe’en at the end of the month with a suitably spicy cocktail created by Anthony in our Glasgow Members’ Room, while we had the pleasure of hearing from MasterChef winner Irini Tzortzoglou about how she uses SMWS whisky in some of her Greek recipes. She’s very kindly shared some suggestions for us to try at home as well.

Society member and mountaineer Nigel Vardy took his SMWS whisky to share on expeditions to the fjords of Norway and the glaciers of Greenland and has written up the story of his adventures, while we also head to Germany to hear about an SMWS whisky and beer collaboration with Hamburg’s Kehrwieder brewery, as well as paying a visit to our fantastic Villa Konthor partner bar in Limburg an der Lahn.

Find yourself a quiet corner and delve into all of that and much more in our October issue.

Cheers!