A wander doon the water..

It's about an hour's walk down the river,  from my home down to Leith. It's a stretch of the legs I take of a late afternoon when there isn't much going on.

I think I was aiming for a pint in the Roseleaf, but by the time I'd got about half way, my mind had turned to whisky and after a bit more walking and cogitating, I knew clearly what I wanted; a fruity Christmassy Speyside  followed by something wild and windy from Islay to blow the cobwebs away. The obvious place to go, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, the sanctum sanctorum of Scottish Whisky; sofas, open fires and selected cask bottlings.


The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

If you love Scottish Whisky, you should know about the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SWMS) and if you live in Edinburgh you should be a member. Their traditional home is in Leith and they have a beautiful unpretentious club room housed in an 18th Century wine warehouse. There, they serve their own bottlings of cask strength whisky, the casks selected by the Society from around Scotland and beyond.

The well informed bar staff will usually help you out, you just have to phrase your query well: "What's good?", "What's new?", "What's interesting?", will all work, I worked out what I want on the walk down; "Today I'm going to have two drams, I am looking for a fruity Speyside to start and an Islay with a bit of a punch." (I would have said "Like sitting on the West Coast at dusk, a storm coming in." - but he'd probably mark me down as fey or pretentious and I'm still sober and we don't know each other that well).

Oh and one other thing about the SMWS, each bottle is distiguished by two numbers, the first of the distillery and the second the cask it came from. The distillery cannot be named directly because it is also a brand and trademark, and the number of  the cask represents the number of the cask SWMS has bottled from that distillery.  So SMWS 11 38 is from the Tomatin Distillery (Number 11) and it is the 38th Cask that the SMWS has bottled from Tomatin.

Anyway the barman gives me a  12 year old Tomatin (11 38 'Tasty as Hell') and a Caol Ila (53 276 - which I can't find any information on).

This is the link to Whisky Society site-

 https://www.smws.com/

SMWS 11 38 Tomatin Distillery 12 year old, "Tasty as Hell"

Tomatin, I remember from the Whisky Fringe, is a Highland Distillery, just the wrong side of the A9 to be a Speyside. It was once the largest distillery in Scotland with 23 stills  (11 of the original 23 stills have since been removed). Tomatin  was the first distillery in Scotland to be sold to a Japanese company and is currently owned by the Takora Shuzo Corporation.

This twelve year old is matured in bourbon casks and then finished in a red wine cask. The nose is clean, sprightly and spicey. The taste is spare, clean and peppery. A nice whisky, but I don't really get that rich fruitiness I was looking for.

SMSW 53 276 Caol Ila Distillery (no other information)

The distillery takes it's name from the stretch of water between Islay and Jura and sits on the east coast of Islay, looking out onto the Paps of Jura. The distillery has six stills and the Caol Ila was first released as a single malt in 1989.

After the Tomatin, this Caol Ila, takes you straight down the 'Caol' cellar; peat and strange citrus, like slightly over ripe tangerines. Salt, peat and fire. A candle lit croft at dusk,  an elegant punch in the face, a sledgehammer, a no nonsense smokey bastard, a stone mason of a whisky, a  giant, chewy, smokey, spicey, liquoricy beast.

Like a good movie, you're still thinking about it days after, wondering what hit you..


Conclusion

So two nice whiskies in the end. 'Tasty as hell' Tomatin was very nice but not quite the full Christmas pudding effect I was looking for and the Caol Ila, not quite what I was expecting, but something exceptional never the less.


Addendum

My wanderings, took me down Leith again a week or so later and I tried the same trick, two drams at the SWMS. This time I was some what disappointed, it can't be great every time, right? One's mood, the mood of the moment, contributes of course, but also I wondered if they are trying to do too many out turns these days, as the business grows, the more single casks you bottle, surely, the less likely they are to all be exceptional.

Tasting notes

37 112  - 16 year old Cragganmore 
 (first fill ex-madera hogshead *)

Cragganmore distillery was founded in 1869. It was the first Speyside distillery to take advantage of newly opened Speyside railway. The advent of the railway would lead to a massive expansion of Speyside distilleries in the 1890s (Today, the railway no longer exists, the rail track now forming part of the Speyside Way, a long distance walk (speysideway.org). The distillery is currently owned by Diageo and operates two spirit stills.

A soft nose (light nose prickle, oranges and citrus, tutti frutti). At cask strength, still soft on the palet. Quite drinkable at cask strength, Highland burn water, snow melt and fruit. A splash of water opens up the spice and fire, but it is a gentle fire, spicey water, a hint of copper.

Tutti Frutti, snow melt, the embers of a fire.

* A wine hogshead is a large barrel that holds about 300 Litres of liquid.

26 122 - Clynelish

'In 1896, Harpers Wine and Spirit Gazette reported: 'The make [from Clynelish] has always obtained the highest price of any single Scotch whisky..'

Charles Maclean, Spirit of Place

In other words, back in the nineteenth century Cynelish was a premium single malt whisky when the vast majority whisky produced in Scotland was sent for blending. It can probably lay claim to being the first Single Malt.

The distillery is in Brora, on the north east coast and was founded in 1819. It is currently owned by Diageo and operates three spirit stills. It was briefly renamed the Brora distillery. Rare whiskies  with the Brora label are much sought after by collectors.

Ironically, for the home of the first malt, about 95% of the distillery's output is now used in Johnnie Walker, most commonly found in their Gold Label Reserve.

A soft nose of fruit and wood, glue and resin, a pleasant, light fruity whisky.