CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF DISCOVERY

Cast your mind back, if you’re old enough, four decades to 1983. That’s the year The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was founded, against a backdrop of distillery closures, a ‘whisky loch’ of blended spirit that couldn’t be drained, and an industry that showed little interest in single malts, and even less in single cask whiskies.

It took a rebellious attitude to challenge the status quo, something the Society has been doing consistently over 40 years. Throughout 2023 we’ll be bringing you events and whisky to celebrate our anniversary. So bookmark this page to regularly review and see what’s happening.

40TH ANNIVERSARY BOTTLINGS

MAVERICK

Our bespoke Maverick artwork was created by Glasgow-based artist and graphic designer Andy Rogerson. This unique bottling is part of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

Pip Hills, Society founder and ‘Maverick-in-Chief’ says:

“I think it’s lovely…it makes me smile – very, very nice whisky indeed. I see from the bottle that it’s been in two or three different kinds of cask, which is not something that – being old-fashioned – I approve of all that much. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and this is perfectly lovely whisky. Very, very rich, it has light fruity notes, but also dark fruity notes, it smells like Christmas cake and black bun, that sort of thing, and dried fruits. It’s floral as well, which you would expect any good whisky to be. There are deeper underlying notes which I think are aldehydic flavours and sherry-related flavours, which presumably since it spent some time in a sherry cask, you’re getting that.”

Euan Campbell, SMWS Head of Whisky Creation said:

“On a recent trip to Jerez I was thinking about how much there is to explore in whisky, particularly the cask that the whisky is matured in. And I had this kind of sense of excitement that I imagine our founder Pip Hills had back in the early days when the Society was just starting. So that kind of feeling was the inspiration for putting Maverick together. This is very much trying to encapsulate that excited feeling of discovery within whisky. It’s great fun, and this is really the most exciting part of the job. When I get to sit down with a row of samples and really start to assess those and start to decide how they might fit together, that is so much fun. So I started looking at our sherry matured stocks and I came across a Speyside single malt, this is drawn from Spanish oak, oloroso, and Pedro Ximenez casks. What I was trying to do was get a nice balance between the kind of dry oloroso character, nuttiness and the sweet Pedro Ximenez decadent side. So it’s a combination of those two cask types and both in Spanish oak.”

NEW WAVE

The ‘New Wave’ celebrates new distilleries and hidden gems – it’s a symbol of everything that the SMWS is all about.

Our original spirit dating back to 1983 was to celebrate access to new experiences – and to help out, we brought back the original house illustrator to marry up that original spirit with a new wave of bottles.

Trying new whiskies has always been part of the endless discovery journey for Society members, and that’s as true today as it has ever been. Our ‘New Wave’ is a look forward, with an interpretation of flavour by our old master, Bob Dewar, on each bottle label.

Euan Campbell, SMWS Head of Whisky Creation, said: “The distilling scene is vibrant and it's a pleasure to work with distilleries old and new. All of these releases are from our new make fillings programme, so we've seen them develop from day one and are delighted to see these releases with the artwork of a key figure in the Society’s history.

“Trying new whiskies has always been part of the endless discovery journey for Society members, and that’s as true today as it has ever been. Our ‘New Wave’ is a look forward, with an interpretation of flavour by our old master, Bob Dewar, on each bottle label.”