outturn - the scotch malt whisky society of canada€¦ · turkish coffee whilst grilling succulent...

Outturn

September 2012

Bottling List

Issue 12

www.smws.ca

One of these is not like the others...

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 ‘Wild west cowgirl dressed in leather’ or have a

preference for ‘A lady of the night’ (hey, we don’t judge). Maybe your instincts lead

you to a dram that’s more like ‘Candy floss in a fairground’ or perhaps akin to

‘Keith Richards meets Socrates.’

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 September 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

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:

Colour: Mandarin mahogany Date distilled: January 1975

Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 55%

Age: 35 years Outturn: 167 bottles

www.smws.ca 3

Speyside (Lossie)

Speyside (Lossie)

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,

nougat, 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

Cask: Refill hogshead, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 45.5%


35 years

old!

Low

outturn!

Men beware!

With crêpes, or any other dessert Drinking tip:

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



www.smws.ca 4

Highland (Northern)

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

Highland (North)

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 Bottle price

$160.99

A dram to unwind with Drinking tip:

Colour: Flat ginger ale Date distilled: August 1990

Cask: Refill barrel, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 50.5%


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



5 www.smws.ca

Islay

Sunset beach dram Drinking tip:

Colour: Silvery fish in a moon pool Date distilled: December 2000



Islay

Paint your own picture

Cask No. Peat smoke drifts from a nearby island across calm waters – the sun is going

down after a hot day on the beach – a driftwood fire is now lit on shingle between

rock-pools – barbecued pork ribs, langoustines, lobster, then lemon meringue pie

for dessert – nose the dram – ginger, Germolene, tobacco, boxing gloves – paint

your own picture – Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction? – taste it now – root beer, ice-

cream, bananas, Old Holborn tobacco, liquorice cigarette papers, burnt heather,

barley sugars rolled in ash – this whisky evoked all of these for us – now test your

own imagination – it’s from the Sound of Islay.

53.157 Bottle price

$133.99

www.smws.ca

Rum

Mint humbugs

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

swimming 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



6

How to order from Friday September 7th

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!

Not for swigging, glugging or knocking back! 7

But not forever!

Here’s a chance to sample 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

Wowee!

Cask No. Wowee! – a mouth-watering nose – initial waves of teriyaki, soy noodles, crispy

bacon, cough medicine and rum, followed by roast pork with apple sauce and

sultanas cooking in cinnamon, butter and sugar; also some grass, wood glue and

bubble gum. We tasted fascinating flavours of char siu pork, dried figs and

cooked cherries and apples – then a breath-taking finish of liquorice, shoe polish,

wood and posh leather. The reduced nose was sweeter and tamer – spiced onion

jam and Old English Spangles. The palate now suggested brown sugar on

porridge, maple candy and hints of grapefruit. The distillery has a musical clock

tower.

105.17 Bottle price

$189.99

Speyside (Spey)

While waiting for the pork roast to be ready - easy

on the water

Drinking tip:

Colour: Deep ginger Date distilled: September 1983

Cask: First fill sherry hogshead Alcohol: 55.3%


Just 3 bottles

left!

www.smws.ca 8

Sorry!

Sold out!

Speyside (Spey)

Speyside (Lossie)

Complex and manly

Cask No. Rich, complex and delicious: fruity rum-toft, unripe plums and mellow fruits,

nuts and chocolate, unlit cigars, hard toffee, shoe polish… developing to waxy

cake tin. A big texture at full strength: sweet, waxy and meaty, with surprise

chilli chocolate and ‘cherries soaked in sweet vermouth’. With water the

waxiness increases; now shredded and glazed roast duck, gingerbread, stewed

strawberries, a trace of dusty wood behind, indicating age. Smooth and sweet to

taste; slightly waxy with tobacco traces and chocolate-covered biscuits. From

Dufftown’s first distillery.

76.88 Bottle price

$176.99

In the library, with coffee and a cigar Drinking tip:

Colour: Pale amber Date distilled: September 1988



Bottle price

$160.99 Nicey, nicey, sweet ’n spicy

Cask No. The nose was finely layered – old-fashioned, expensive, floral perfume on top; ap-

ple sauce, gooseberry purée and a tin of fruity boiled sweets below that; the olfacto-

ry sub-strata inhabited by patent leather and old books. The taste was sweet and

hot – opinions included tom yam soup, mango chutney, HP Sauce, chilli, crystal-

lised ginger and leather. The reduced nose added floral pot-pourri, plum chutney,

polished sandalwood and Indian food (ginger, paprika, etc.). The palate improved

but the sweet and savoury profile remained steady – toffee, honey, sugar-coated

fennel seeds, liquorice and salty lime pickle. This distillery does not draw water

from Loch Dhu!

64.35

A bit of a talking point whisky - could accompany an

Asian or Indian takeaway

Drinking tip:

Colour: Twinkly gold Date distilled: February 1990

Cask: Refill barrel, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 55.2%


Only one

left!

9 www.smws.ca

After skiing with a cheese fondue Drinking tip:

Colour: Blushed apricot gold Date distilled: November 2001

Cask: Refill barrel, ex-bourbon Alcohol: 58%


Scottish Heidi

Cask No. Aromas of a rock garden with a variety of herbs like sage, fennel and turmeric as

well as a floral note of Edelweiss, whilst in the background fresh tar being laid on

a road. On the palate smoky Swiss cheese with digestive biscuits then becoming

sweeter, brownies and dark mint chocolates with a trace of teasing lavender

smoke. Adding water, dry and dusty then turning fresh like a Ricola Lemon mint

followed by a nougat note of dark Toblerone. The taste with water is of pork

sausages, water biscuits with peppered cream cheese and a dry volcanic ashy

note to finish. This distillery is believed to be named after a peninsula between

Cardross and Helensburgh.

66.33

Bottle price

$112.99

Highland (Eastern)

Purchase

4.162 and

31.23

together

and save

(see page

11)! Drinking tip: A reward 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 over-

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

All-Rounder’.

4.162 Bottle price

$139.99

Highland (Islands)

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



Purchase

4.162 and

31.23

together

and save

(see page

11)!

11

Not for swigging, glugging or knocking back!

Cognac

lovers take

note!

Purchase 4.162 “Smoker’s tooth powder” and 31.23

“Sugared almonds in a mattress factory” together and

receive 15% off (but no smoking in bed)!

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

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

12

outturn - the scotch malt whisky society of canada€¦ · turkish coffee whilst grilling succulent...

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