MEMBER STORY
Edinburgh to Assam
This year we’ve been asking the question: where does your whisky take you? But sometimes the better question is: where do you take your whisky? While they’re similar questions, the global nature of our club means that sometimes you find the perfect malt when you least expect it, as Mads Schmoll found out from Sanjay Gurung, an SMWS member based in Portland, Oregon
ABOVE: Sanjay, his friends Rachel and Swathi enjoy a dram the fateful night he acquired the last bottle of Cask No. 9.254: Berrylicious malty Assam tea
In September 2023 Sanjay Gurung purchased the last bottle of Cask No. 9.254: Berrylicious malty Assam tea from our Members’ Room at 28 Queen Street. With the nature of the single cask, this isn’t a particularly infrequent occurrence – but the story of what happened next is a one-of-a-kind adventure that’s as unique as this whisky.
Sanjay is from a small town called Kalimpong, at the foothills of the Himalayas in Northeastern India. Despite being nearly 5,000 miles from Scotland, the town is linked to the country in the form of a 100-year-old boarding school founded and run by Scottish missionaries. As a result, Scotland’s influence on Sanjay started quite early.
“Some of our visitors from the Highlands talked about the joys of single malt as they helped fine-tune the school bagpipe marching band,” says Sanjay. “This translated to a lifelong interest in everything about Scotland and the fascination of the single malt.”
When Sanjay began his career he experienced Scotland for the first time when a friend took him to visit Edradour distillery in 2006. He tasted his first single malt and soon his yearly work trip began to include a whisky pilgrimage whenever possible. He started with Speyside, the Highlands, the Lowlands and Campbeltown before reaching Islay.
His first experience of the Society came in 2018 when friend and well-known whisky writer, Nino Kilgore-Marchetti, founder of The Whiskey Wash, invited him to a tasting. He saw an SMWS bottle and the rest was history: “I was blown away first by the whisky and then by what the organisation was and what it stood for,” says Sanjay.
He deepened his connection through a close friend, colleague and Leith resident Dr Jim Jarvie, who was already an SMWS member. “On my next trip I made my first visit to The Vaults with Jim and it was then that I became a member and began my relationship with the SMWS.”
Fast forward to 2023 and Sanjay, now vice president of a global development organization, had been living in Portland, Oregon for 15 years.
On a trip to Queen Street, his friend Rachel spotted Cask No. 9.254: Berrylicious malty Assam tea. He bought the bottle, hoping to take it home to India. The only problem was that he was due to travel to Senegal for work. Thankfully due to the help of colleagues and friends the bottle was kept safe, travelling first to Washington DC with colleague Alex Angulo, then from there onwards with his friend Swathi to Portland, Oregon.
But the bottle’s journey didn’t end there, as Sanjay eventually gifted it to his brother-in-law Dudul Chowdhury, who finally brought the bottle to his home in Guwahati, Assam – the Indian state where Assam tea is grown.
After spotting the story on social media, we caught up with Sanjay to find out more about his whisky journey. “I see my Society membership as a turning point in my whisky journey,” he says. “Now sitting at home I can experience that exclusive collection from the comfort of my home and whenever I am in Edinburgh, Glasgow or London I look forward to visiting and enjoying the experience as a member.”
PICTURED: Kalimpong, at the foothills of the Himalayas in Assam, northeastern India, where the Scottish influence still runs deep