Celebrating Pip's 85th birthday
We recently celebrated the 85th birthday of our founder, Pip Hills with a party at The Vaults. In 1983 he and his pals formed The Scotch Malt Whisky Society to share whisky in its purest form uniting those of you with a passion for flavour, for variety, for fun….and for not always doing as you’re told.
At Pip’s party, we released a special bottling, Cask No. 85.106: Warming and cheerful. In the spirit of sharing, we’re offering you the chance to enjoy one of Pip’s commemorative birthday bottles featuring a label design inspired by our original paper labels.
Here’s to sharing great whisky and raising a glass to Pip!
Tasting Notes
The nose displayed sweet treats (banana split, toffee, honey, dark chocolate and coffee creams) and wood (forest walks, tea chests, walnuts and a shoe polish box). The palate was also woody, but warming and cheerful, conjuring up pine, burnt toast, cinnamon buns, ginger, nutmeg and black pepper. Far from one-dimensional, we also discovered lemonade, melon, tinned pears, ice cream and upside-down pineapple cake. The reduced nose developed the rich, buttery nuttiness of apricot danishes, chocolate honeycomb bars, spice cake and blossom honey. The palate now balanced its toffee and custard sweetness with a pleasant apple and blackcurrant tang, before a spicier finish of coriander, liquorice torpedoes and sugar-coated fennel seeds.