Ardmore 10 Year (SMWS 66.33 "Scottish Heidi")

 

Another great Ardmore from years gone by, found on the shelf at the Jack Rose Saloon, this hails from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS"), was distilled in 2001 and bottled in 2012. Numbered 66.33, I've only had a couple Ardmore bottles distilled prior to this one. 

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 2023 "The Gathering," in Washington DC with Pip Hills (founder of SMWS)

Tonight the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") celebrated its annual Gathering at the Jack Rose Saloon... with founder Pip Hills in attendance, all the way from Scotland. It was a night of six whiskies, and many new faces to meet and greet and swap stories with. 

Ardbeg Event at Jack Rose Saloon, Washington DC, September 17, 2023

 

Last night the Jack Rose Saloon here in Washington DC - that famous temple of whiskies - hosted the team from Ardbeg (including current distillery manager Colin Gordon) in a tasting of five whiskies, followed by a question-and-answer session. 

The five whiskies sampled were: the new 5th release of Traigh Bhan; Fermutation; BizzareBQ; Galileo; and the newest Anthology release, "Harpy's Tale." 

Glasgow Distillery Company 5 Year (SMWS 156.1 "West Coast Recipe")

 

The Glasgow Distillery Company is a new lowlands distillery, founded in 2015, and the first in the area since 1902. Interestingly, the distillery offers joint tours with Tennants brewery - I would absolutely do this. According to Wikipedia, they have a reputation for experimentation, so I'm doubly curious about this bottle now. 

This bottles comes from the very first cask they sold to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS"), and is lightly peated and only five years old (!). Presumably triple-distilled. Without much ado, here are the official tasting notes from SMWS: 

Ardmore 15 Year (SMWS 66.229 "Tarred and Re-feathered")

 

The previous Ardmore I had from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") was a super chocolate bomb due to a really potent finish in a Trinidadian rum cask. Lovely stuff. This Ardmore - sequentially, the next cask they picked up from Ardmore - is finished in a PX sherry cask, so I'm hopeful for another good marriage of flavors. 

Mackmyra 12 Year (SMWS 151.3 "Skinny Dipping in the Baltic Sea")

 

Here is an interesting whisky - a single cask Swedish single malt from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS")! Hailing from Mackmyra distillery, this is one I've been curious about for some time. This Mackmyra, aged 12 years in first fill ex-bourbon, is peated (with Swedish peat!) and matured not in a warehouse but underground in an old mine (!). They also use an innovative gravity distillery these days, although I don't know if it was used to make this spirit or not. 

Ardnamurchan 7 Year (SMWS 149.6 "Recipe for Success")

 

This is the other recently released (August 2023) Ardamurchan single cask from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS"). The first one was a six year old fully matured in a PX sherry cask and was a delectable chocolate sherry bomb - rich as blazes. This one is a year older, fully matured in an Oloroso sherry cask, and lightly peated. 

Ardnamurchan 6 Year (SMWS 149.3 "A Walk in the Woods")

 

Ardnamurchan is one of the newer distilleries in Scotland, and probably the most prominent of the new crop to emerge in the last decade or so. I've had a couple of their official bottlings (excellent) and also a single cask from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") which was quite good, although a little offbeat. 

SMWS just released a couple more single cask bottlings from Ardnamurchan, and I picked them up. One is peated, one is unpeated; this is the unpeated offering. A brash 6 years old, filed under SMWS's Young & Sprightly category. 

Glen Scotia 8 Year (SMWS 93.193 "Salty Waterslide")

 

It's been a slow summer, it terms of whisky drinking. I've just been sipping away on bottles already reviewed, so very little to report. One of the few new things I picked up was this 8 year bottle of Glen Scotia from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS"), which was apparently hand-picked by Neil Patrick Harris, who has something of an ongoing relationship with SMWS.