outturn - the scotch malt whisky society of canada · 2015. 10. 7. · chocolaty finish. water...

Birds of a feather sip together

www.smws.ca

Issue 13 October 2012

Bottling List

Outturn

www.smws.ca

Each Society bottling is unique. And each can be identified by its markings. The

tasting notes give you an insight into the characteristics of each whisky, and are

the best place to start.

You may find yourself drawn to a ‘Femme fatale’ or have a preference for ‘Soft light

at sunset’. Maybe your instincts lead you to a dram that’s ‘Immense, manly, meaty

and peaty’ or perhaps akin to ‘Boiled sweets & grapefruit peel.’

These curious descriptors are your best clue to what you’ll find within each bottle,

and are at the heart of The Society’s raison d’être.

With The Society’s monthly selection of single cask malts it’s not surprising that

some members find it hard to focus on their perfect bottlings. Thankfully it’s not

cheating to ask for help. Just call Kensington Wine Market at 403-283-8000

(within Calgary) or at 1-888-283-9004 (outside Calgary) or email us at

[email protected] or [email protected] for advice of an

expert nature.

How to use Outturn

Welcome to the October 2012 Outturn!

outturn n. 1 The number of Society bottles produced from a single cask. Varies

from cask to cask. A finite number that will, sooner or later, run out.

2 The name given to Society bottling lists, containing Tasting Notes for each

recently released Society bottling of which only a limited number are ever available

(see above).

2

www.smws.ca 3

Speyside (Spey)

Speyside (Spey)

Colour: Brazilian suntan Date distilled: September 1983

Cask: First fill sherry hogshead Alcohol: 55.4%

Age: 28 years Outturn: 134 bottles

Mulled cider & beef goulash

Cask No. Savoury, spicy aromas of beef goulash, Night nurse, cranberry concentrate,

maple-cured bacon, nutmeg, root beer, red grapes, Stollen, lamb gravy, caraway

and rye bread made us all hungry. The palate, not as savoury as expected was

thick with cedarwood, spiced apple tobacco and mulled cider. With water we

now smelled celery, mushrooms, plum chutney, sesame, roast turkey &

redcurrant jelly although a sweetness of wild strawberries. To taste it was now

minty, dry and chewy with a spiced milky coffee and musty note. We all agreed it

was better neat. From the first purpose built distillery in the twentieth century.

105.16 Bottle price

$200.99

In place of mulled wine Drinking tip:

Low

outturn!

106.18

Bottled essence of summer

Cask No. Our noses found poignant floral perfumes, shrubberies and pine tree freshness.

We also detected ripe fruits (apple, mango), candles, cinnamon, clove and

honey on buttered toast. The palate was chewy and delicious; fragrant wood,

flowers and tropical fruits (lychee, apricot, passion fruit) mingled with sweet

toffee flavours to draw sighs of contentment from the panel. The reduced nose,

with tutti-frutti ice-cream, lime, sawn wood and aromatherapy oils made us

think of warm summer nights. The palate now carried rose and lemon-flavoured

Turkish Delight with stem ginger spicy warmth in the tail-flick. The distillery

houses the spiritual home of Johnnie Walker.

Bottle price

$197.99

Perfect dram for the first day of your holiday Drinking tip:

Colour: Yellowish amber Date distilled: November 1984

Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 52.6%


First appearance

from distillery

106!

When you need a ‘quickie’ Drinking tip:

Colour: Pale wood sap Date distilled: March 2005

Cask: Refill barrel, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 62.7%


www.smws.ca 4

Highland (Island)

Straightforward, sweet & spicy

Cask No. Yes it was young – but perfectly enjoyable – we nosed dried grass, flowers,

herbs, creosote and soft tar (perhaps in a farmyard context?); also lemon

sponge, vanilla, pepper and chocolate Easter eggs in boxes. The unreduced

palate was pretty straightforward, sweet and spicy; specifically milk chocolate

and white pepper, along with grass and paper. The reduced nose offered green

grapes, melted vanilla ice-cream, some salt and a ‘scorched boiler-suit’. That

simple balance (don’t look for much complexity) also inhabited the reduced

palate – plum jam, syrup, MDF furniture, ‘licking a TV screen’ and some spicy

warmth to finish. From Mull’s only distillery.

42.10

Speyside (Lossie)

Yummy & mouth-watering

Cask No. The inviting nose was intensely floral (chrysanthemums, dahlias, elderflower,

pot-pourri) but an array of other aromas (mocha, almond cakes, Crunchie bars,

painted wood, blueberry bubblegum) suggested a coffee shop and book shop

combination. The palate was rich and warm, giving thick heather honey, sweet

coconut, Sunday roast, flower salad and varnished wood – we were bowled

over. The reduced nose continued beautifully perfumed with the coconut of

gorse flowers and sweet and sour Peking duck. The reduced palate became

yummy and mouth-watering, with vanilla, meadowsweet and perfumed

elderflower champagne. The distillery, dating from 1824, sits on the eastern

edge of Elgin.

39.83 Bottle price

$208.99

To share with best friends Drinking tip:

Colour: Rich buttery gold Date distilled: October 1982



First

appearance

from

distillery

42!

Bottle price

$139.99

A captain of industry

Cask No. Industrial bath salts, carbolic, lanolin and sheep dip, then bog myrtle, thyme,

heather flowers, chopped apples and celery. Unlit fireworks in their box and cigar

ash. Sweet, clean and lightly cooling to taste (menthol cigarettes), with ash in the

finish. Water simplifies the aroma and makes it more grubby/industrial – ‘well

used electrical equipment’, minerals, batteries, soot. An oily texture and a sweet

taste: smoky, with coal dust in the aftertaste and finish. We imagine the

operators contemplating the Paps of Jura through the massive windows of their

still house.

53.159 Bottle price

$142.99

Watching the workers, cigar in hand Drinking tip:

Colour: Pale green-gold Date distilled: August 1995

Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 57%


5 www.smws.ca

Islay

While cleaning fishing tackle or watching Drinking tip:

Colour: Lemon yellow Date distilled: April 2002



Campeltown

Wench with a wrench

Cask No. On the nose a fairy cake, vanilla slice, maple syrup sweetness gradually gave way

to nuts, apples, Dr Peppers and lilies; eventually, black olives and linseed or even

fish oil. The unreduced palate was waxy, mouth-coating and robust; with its

diesel smoke, fudge and black pepper – we imagined ‘a feisty wench with a

wrench’ – not for the faint-hearted. The reduced nose had burnt sticky toffee

pudding and cherry lips, with oily rags that may even have been ignited! The

palate, with water, was sweet and strange, but interesting (briny lemons, WD40,

fishy fudge and ‘dirty tablet’). From Campbeltown’s lesser-known distillery.

93.52 Bottle price

$102.99

www.smws.ca

Grain

Sweet & sour melange

Cask No. The nose balanced toffee, marzipan, glacé cherries and lemon puff biscuits

against some spritzy, slightly acidic sherbet; we also found waxed paper,

hazelnuts, greenery and geraniums. The unreduced palate had sharp, tropical

fruits and lemon peel; also new wood and then something spicy and savoury. The

reduced nose suggested peaches, cheesecake, woodland paths and a ruined

castle by a lily-pad loch – quite a landscape. The reduced palate seemed a

reasonable mixture of sweetness and astringency – a sweet and sour mélange of

toffee, pineapple, green sappy wood with some white pepper spicy heat in the

finish. Captain Haddock’s favourite dram, apparently.

G9.1

While watching, or reading, Tintin Drinking tip:

Colour: Sunset gold Date distilled: September 2000



6

How to order from Friday October 5th

Through The Scotch Malt Whisky Society website at www.smws.ca, which will

then take you through to the Kensington Wine Market website for final purchase.

Through the Kensington Wine Market website at

www.kensingtonwinemarket.com - search for ‘The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’

under the Scotch tab.

By phoning Andrew Ferguson at the Kensington Wine Market at (403) 283-8000

(within Calgary) or at 1-888-283-9004 (outside Calgary).

In person at Kensington Wine Market, located at

1257 Kensington Road NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 3P8.

Remember, you have to be a member to

purchase, so please have your membership number handy!

First

bottling

from

distillery

G9.1!

Bottle price

$103.99

Not for swigging, glugging or knocking back! 7

But not forever!

Here’s a chance to get your hands on some rare treats from our bottle bank of

past Society releases. Remember, Society whiskies are bottled from single casks,

so they don’t last forever. As the number of remaining drams decreases, their

rarity increases. Fortunately for you, the price doesn’t!

Past Bottlings

Speyside (Lossie)

Entrancing & delightful

Cask No. The nose was entrancing and delightful! Honeycomb, marmalade and cherry

liqueur; exotic fruits and flowers; polished mahogany and leather. The palate was

lively but never frivolous – brown sugar in espresso coffee dregs and Grand

Marnier flavours mingling and tingling in the mouth, “everlasting joy” exclaimed

one panellist. On the reduced nose, the orange theme developed even further –

candied orange dipped in luxurious chocolate, Jaffa cakes, orange jelly – also a

slight whisper of cardamom or something medicinal. The reduced palate had a

special, urbane, adult sweetness; toffee and spice and all things nice.

The distillery is sometimes flooded by the Lossie.

35.44 Bottle price

$253.99

After dinner - preferably wearing a dinner jacket Drinking tip:

35 years

old!

Low

outturn! Colour: Mandarin mahogany Date distilled: January 1975



www.smws.ca 8

Speyside (Lossie)

Highland (Northern)

The femme fatale

Cask No. With the initial smell, she came out of her shell, and still she promised more.

Peaches, coffee and spice were there to entice, and yet she promised more. The

flavour neat, had woodiness and heat, all the while she’s promising more. Sweet

cherry lips, plum brandy on ships, again she’s promising more. Water brought

milkshake, vanilla ice cream (no flake), and still she promised more. Toffee, nou-

gat, nuts and soap, on our tongues gave us hope. Surely, there’s some more?

Dear drinker take heed, of her last victim’s greed, the fellow begged for more. He

took her to task, and fell in his glass, Drink her if you dare!

39.86 Bottle price

$159.99

Drink at your peril, as a gift to yourself! Drinking tip:

Colour: Sunbed tan Date distilled: October 1990



Men beware!

Massage in a bottle

Cask No. Initial essences of beeswax and guitar polish led the panel down an extremely

aromatic path. Potpourri, scented candles and orange oil tickled our olfactory

senses, fresh laundry (maybe towels) caused us to sink into our seats. Lavender

and orange blossom emerged on the palate, coating the mouth with a waxy

chocolaty finish. Water heightened our spiritual experience as the room filled

with incense, hand cream, jasmine, pear drops and ripe peaches. The flavour

expanded to encapsulate vanilla, white chocolate and waves of oranges and

watermelons. We emerged from this dram relaxed and sweetly sedate.

26.86

A dram to unwind with Drinking tip:

Colour: Flat ginger ale Date distilled: August 1990



Bottle price

$160.99

9 Not for swigging, glugging or knocking back!

Highland (Northern)

Almost

gone!

Only two

left!

Drinking tip: After a long, wet walk

Colour: Pale gold Date distilled: November 1995



Smoker’s tooth powder

Cask No. Fresh and lightly maritime – salt crystals, seaweed, mineralic – with some

fragrant dried-floral or mixed dried herbal notes, becoming faintly medicinal and

peaty. Eucryl Tooth Powder – check it out! Sweet and citric to taste, with a smoky

finish: ‘minty chewing tobacco’, commented one panel member. With water,

solvent notes emerge, but also dried fruits - ‘sultanas in alcohol’, Madeira cake –

then bath salts, Refreshers (sherbet sweets) and burnt eucalyptus leaves. Sweet,

fresh and slightly salty to taste, with a whiff of smoke in the finish; maritime

overall, with minty notes. An appealing example of Michael Jackson’s ‘Great

All-Rounder’.

4.162 Bottle price

$139.99

Highland (Islands)

With crêpes, or any other dessert Drinking tip:

Colour: Ginger gold with orange lights Date distilled: November 2001



Crêpes Suzettes & coffee dregs

Cask No. Reminiscent of Calvados and Grand Marnier, the nose delivered toffee apples,

pineapple, Crêpes Suzettes, Werthers originals, Edinburgh rock, custard slices and

Moffat toffees. The unreduced palate exploded with warm ginger and orange

flavours (if ever a whisky lived up to its colour!) then superior tequila and Madeira

wine in the finish. The reduced nose offered dried fruits, ginger wine, lots of citrus

(lemon meringue pie, oranges in syrup, pineapple) and caramel gradually

emerging. The reduced palate, still big, chewy and beautifully sweet, had sugary

dregs of coffee, chocolate gingers, then a dry sherry aftertaste rounding off this fine

Tain dram.

125.62 Bottle price

$112.99

10 www.smws.ca

Highland (Island)

Sugared almonds in a mattress factory

Cask No. The intriguing nose delivered dried fruits and mixed nuts, toffee, green malt,

mouse-trap cheese with a black, sooty fireplace grate somewhere in the

background. The palate was pleasantly sweet yet robust – with moist iced

gingerbread, liquorice, salt, smoke and chalky, limestone, earthy elements. The

reduced nose turned somewhat fatty and savoury, like leg of lamb or the

wrapping of a haggis supper – also cigarette papers and a mineral beach, with

salt marshes nearby. The palate now floral and sweet suggested sugared

almonds and iced gems in a coil-sprung mattress factory. The distillery, designed

by architect William Delmé-Evans, was built around 1960.

To take in a hip flask up the Paps of Jura - or any

other hill

Drinking tip:

Colour: Old gold Date distilled: September 1988



31.23 Bottle price

$169.99

Islay

A changeling

Cask No. All malts change in the glass - this one more than most! It begins clean, fresh

and mineralic, with a soapy edge, then gains soft toffee and charcoal, with

heather pollen, then moves towards treacle toffee, dentists’ mouthwash and…

prawn cocktail crisps! The taste, at this stage, is sweet, salty and tarry (toasted

barley; a hot kiln), with smoky bacon crisps. Water raises exhaust fumes, railway

engines, Hippie Afghan coats, goats, a smoking Bakelite plug, Plasticine, melting

vinyl records, bonfire ash; the taste now soft, sweet, salty, clay-like, with malt in

the ashy finish. From the Prince of Wales’ favourite distillery.

29.113

Bottle price

$115.99

Contemplating the sunset Drinking tip:

Colour: Pale green-gold Date distilled: February 2001



Down to

the last

few!

Just 2 bottles

left!


After dinner dram

Cask No. First impressions are meaty and herbal, roasted lamb with thyme and rosemary,

followed by a maritime freshness of a salty sea breeze and the sweetness of mint

toffee. Undiluted on the palate surprisingly sweet, slightly bitter, like a good

Turkish coffee whilst grilling succulent pork fillets. With water, more sweetness

on the nose is added, vanilla pods and black currants as well as a flinty, chalky

aroma reminding us of Edinburgh rock. The taste develops into a sweet hot

chocolate with a freshness of eucalyptus leaves and the lingering ashy aftertaste

from the bbq last night at ‘the beautiful hollow by the broad bay’.

29.114 Bottle price

$115.99

Instead of a coffee after a bbq on the beach Drinking tip:

Colour: Citrus peel gold Date distilled: February 2001



Islay

Rum

Mint humbugs

Cask No. Surprisingly deep and complex for its age, we were transported to a tropical swim-

ming pool at first: plastic flip-flops, wicker sun-loungers, with a dusty note (’chest

of drawers’), then a rush of pumpkin-seed oil, damson vinegar and Cola-cubes…

The taste blows your socks off! Sweet and peppery, after a start of ‘water-wings’.

Water softens the aroma and taste considerably: vanilla fudge, cherry pie and

Canadian cedar (with cherries) on the nose, and a clean, mint humbug,

mentholated (even clove-like) taste. One panellist produced a bottle of Coke and a

lime… Delicious!

R5.1 Bottle price

$131.99

Looking out over azure water Drinking tip:

Colour: Golden syrup Date distilled: January 2002



12 www.smws.ca

Cognac

lovers take

note!

Follow us on Twitter at @smwscanada!

Soft, spicy, rich and intense

Cask No. Wonderfully soft and perfumed yet spicy, deep, intense on the nose - hints of

sandlewood, dark cherries, toasted apple, candyfloss, oranges and spices

transported us to a late autumn bonfire (not Guy Fawkes or Halloween though).

On the palate initial intense spicy perfumed woody notes gave way to a soft

creamy taste with a hot spicy almost tannic finish. Water (and it didn’t really need

it) made it waxier with church candles and saddle soap, sweet caramel and rich

apple tarte tatin. To taste it seems even spicy - cinnamon, aniseed and clove but

still very soft and supple with a long sweet unctuous finish.

A4

Bottle price

$170.99

A perfect autumnal dram but would be fantastic as a

digestif Drinking tip:

Colour: Orange copper Date distilled: January 1983



Armagnac

13 Not for

Upcoming tastings and events!

Monday, October 8 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, October 19 - SMWS Canada’s 1st Anniversary

at Kensington Wine Market!

Saturday, October 20 - SMWS Canada’s First

Edmonton tasting - tell all your friends in Edmonton!!

Friday, November 2 - First Friday at Kensington Wine

Market

Thursday, November 8 - Kensington Wine Market Fall

Whisky Festival

Christmas is coming! Don’t forget that a Society

membership makes a wonderful gift!

Fabulous SMWS whiskies coming soon...

“Jar Jar Binks in trouble again”

“Student party aftermath”

“Venus in furs”

and…

...the first bottling from distillery #2 for the Canadian

branch!

14 www.smws.ca

Don’t forget!

Society tasting glasses available! Fantastic for

enjoying Society single malts (and most others).

$12.00 each

(plus shipping and handling and applicable taxes)

Go to www.smws.ca and click on ‘Dry Goods’

For members only (contents sold separately).


Coming soon to a mailbox near you (if you’re a member)!

Curious? Read on!

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, founded in 1983 in Edinburgh, Scotland, is the world’s largest

single malt whisky club, with 26,000 members in 16 countries. The Society bottles in excess

of 300 casks each year from up to 128 distilleries, all at cask strength, and

available exclusively to members.

Members also receive The Society’s award winning magazine, Unfiltered, and have access to

member’s venues in Edinburgh, London, Tokyo and elsewhere.

The Canadian branch releases new single malt whiskies every month on the

first Friday of the month (“First Fridays!’).

In Canada, The Society’s exclusive retailer is Kensington Wine Market in Calgary. Membership can be

purchased for $230 plus GST (which includes the new member’s kit, pictured above) by calling

Kensington Wine Market at 403-283-8000 or visiting KWM’s website at www.kensingtonwinemarket.com.

Annual renewals are $120 (plus GST).

Only single cask, single malt whiskies that promise to intrigue, entertain and delight

our members are selected, true to our motto:

To leave no nose upturned.

www.smws.ca

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outturn - the scotch malt whisky society of canada · 2015. 10. 7. · chocolaty finish. water...

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