UNFILTERED ISSUE 95 JULY 2024
Read the current issue (members only).
EDITOR'S WELCOME
It’s amazing how often the anniversaries come around. We celebrated the Society’s 40th birthday last year, and in May some of you may have had the pleasure of attending an event with our ambassador Olaf Meier on his 20th anniversary tasting tour around Scotland.
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From specially commissioned seasoned hogsheads to ex-bodega butts, the world of sherry casks can be as confusing to get your head around as the varieties of sherry wine that might have filled them. In our continuing focus on sherry cask-matured whisky, Richard Goslan explores the wonderful world of sherry wood.
Having produced malt spirit destined to become whisky, there is then the little matter of having to wait three years for it to achieve legal Scotch whisky status. This is the part of the process that distillery accountants dislike most. However, the process of maturation is not there merely to frustrate the bean-counters – it also tames and transforms the raw spirit, imbuing the drams we ultimately drink with what some say could be up to 70 per cent of their overall character. In the final two instalments of his series on the production of Scotch whisky, Gavin D Smith turns his attention to the last act – maturation.
Welcome to Whisky Talk! Hosted by Richard Goslan, editor of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s members magazine Unfiltered, we'll be introducing you to some of the people who make whisky, the places it comes from and the characters who bring it to life.
See what SMWS is up to in the UK and around the world.
