{"id":1965,"date":"2023-05-04T15:40:46","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T13:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smws.ch\/sharing-the-love\/"},"modified":"2023-05-05T10:59:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T08:59:47","slug":"sharing-the-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smws.ch\/en\/sharing-the-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharing the Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

As well our quartet of special single cask bottlings being released this month to celebrate festival season, we\u2019re delighted to offer members a stunning selection of small-batch releases, lovingly created and curated by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society\u2019s Spirits Team.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A single cask is a wonderful, beautiful and treasured thing \u2013 something we can all agree on at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. But sometimes we want to spread the love a little further than the 250 bottles or so that you can offer from a single hogshead. And that\u2019s one of the reasons why for this festival season, the Society is delighted to offer up an amazing range of six small-batch single malts \u2013 as well as a one-off custom distilled small-batch single grain.<\/p>\n

The number of bottles available for each of these releases varies from just over 1000 to more than 2000, and each one was created by the Spirits Team working with between five and 10 different casks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great collection for festival season this year, a mixture of outstanding single cask bottlings complemented by these seven small-batch products,\u201d says SMWS Head of Whisky Creation, Euan Campbell. \u201cWorking with between five and 10 different casks in each case gave us the chance to experiment with different flavours. It also allows us to share these whiskies on a more global scale \u2013 after all, festivals are all about bringing people together and we want to be able to do that in slightly larger volumes this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are also all bottled at cask strength, and each one has its own \u2018cask bill\u2019 recipe \u2013 a different selection of casks that we\u2019ve worked to put together to create something interesting and special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The small-batch series offers a wide range of flavour profiles depending on where your tastes lie, from the Peated bottlings you might expect from Islay distilleries 3 with The Finesse of a Fragrant Furnace<\/strong><\/em> and 53 with Honeysuckle Petrichor <\/strong><\/em>(the Islay bottlings will be released on 26 May), to a Lightly Peated distillery 93 bottling from Campbeltown with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Funnels <\/strong><\/em>(the Campbeltown bottling will be released on 23 May).<\/p>\n

Sherried fans can indulge in Massive Oak Extraction<\/strong><\/em> from distillery 24 and Bake-Off<\/strong><\/em> from distillery 68 (to be released on 12 May), while even at 15-years-old the small-batch Viscous Velvet<\/strong><\/em> from distillery 64 is firmly in the Old & Dignified flavour profile category.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge variety in flavours across the range, and although we don\u2019t normally focus on region, this is the one time of year that we hone in on that,\u201d says Euan. \u201cOur Peated offerings range from something lighter and more floral through to a briny medicinal style. But there\u2019s a focus on sherry cask maturation as well, which is probably not a surprise because we love our sherry casks.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal favourite is the release from distillery 64, Viscous Velvet<\/strong><\/em>. The fact that at 15-years- old the Tasting Panel assigned it to our Old & Dignified flavour profile category is testament to the quality of the casks that it\u2019s matured in. There\u2019s a mixture of bourbon hogsheads, American oak Pedro Xim\u00e9nez and Spanish oak oloroso in there. It has so much butterscotch, whipped cream, vanilla, all these notes, it\u2019s just really decadent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever catches your eye, Euan encourages you to let the whisky transport you, wherever it is you end up popping the cork on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me that great thing about festival season is bringing people together through whisky, which is what the Society tries to do all year around,\u201d he says. \u201cI have loads of great memories of trips to the festival on Islay, meeting so many great people from all over the world. But if you\u2019re not able to make it there, we\u2019re looking to bring a little bit of the festival spirit to you with these releases. It\u2019s all about the camaraderie, getting together, sitting back and sharing a glass with the people who mean a lot to you. What more could you want?\u201d<\/p>\n