Tobermory 15 Year (SMWS 42.68 "An Atlantic Morning Dip")

 

This 15 year Tobermory, a single cask bottling from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") to celebrate Summer 2022, caught my attention right away because it's an older expression and categorized by the SMWS as "oily and coastal," which is probably my favorite of their categories. Tobermory, situated on the Isle of Mull, makes both peated and unpeated whiskies, and this is unpeated. The peated stuff, released under the name Ledaig, is uniformly excellent. 

Inchmoan 12 Year (SMWS 135.35 "Stellar Stuff!")

 

The fourth of six drams served at the April outturn tasting for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") at the Jack Rose Saloon in Adams Morgan, Washington DC. At these events, you sit at a small table and one by one make guesses about the six scotches in front of you: age, type of cask, which distillery (multiple choice, out of five provided), along with a field to write notes. 

Inchmurrin 13 Year (SMWS 122.66 "Dark and Flaming")

 

This was one of those Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) bottlings that I just couldn't pass up - a Loch Lomond (under their Inchmurrin imprint) aged for 11 years in ex-bourbon casks and then ... drumroll please ... another 2 years in a new oak heavy char #4 "alligator" casks. It is pretty unusual to find a #4 in scotch in general (more common in bourbon), let alone in an independent bottling like this. I simply had to try it. Bottled at a very stiff 64.4%, in typical craft presentation, nicknamed "Dark and Flaming." Let's see what alligator char does to a typically sweet, vanilla-forward spirit...