It’s never too late for a gift voucher!

Our digital gift vouchers are perfect for all your last minute whisky gifting needs. Choose a voucher based either on the value of a specific course, or a monetary value that suits, which can be redeemed against any course. Purchasing a digital gift voucher creates a unique code which the recipient can use at their leisure. All you have to do is decide whether to send the voucher to yourself for safekeeping or directly to the lucky recipient.

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Edinburgh Whisky Academy

2 North West Cumberland Street Lane
EH3 6RF
United Kingdom

Christmas is just over a week away, so however you’re celebrating it this year, we hope your preparations are well underway. But if you’re still feeling a bit unorganised – don’t panic! The Society is here to help. Check out this month’s Unfiltered magazine where you’ll find our top tips for planning the perfect retro Christmas.

A VERY RETRO CHRISTMAS

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The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ

Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at here for membership information

This is your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers!

Spot the SMWS bottles in this amusing You Tube video

1997 Hector Macbeth (G*******h) 23 Year Old “Hepburn’s Choice” K&L Exclusive Single Sherry Butt Finish Cask Strength Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) ($119.99)

One of the original teaspooned malts here at K&L that longtime customers may already be familiar with is Hector Macbeth. While nearly all of this year’s blended malts had another distiller’s spirit dropped into it right before bottling, this was teaspooned at the time of production by the original maker with the intention of being sold off to the independent market. This is really how teaspooning came to be a thing in the first place. Blue chip distilleries, like G*******h in this case, don’t want a bunch of people trading on their name. They do, however, still want to sell casks into the blending market to raise quick cash. While we don’t know what they put into the cask in this case (although our money is on the sister distillery next door – B*********e) we do know that it tastes just like you’d expect sherry-finished G*******h at cask strength to taste. If you’ve ever had the excellent G*******h 15 Year Sherry Solera bottling and thought, “I wish this was full proof,” this is the malt for you. The extra 8 years of aging doesn’t hurt either.

David Othenin-Girard | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: December 11, 2020

I’m generally skeptical of finishes, and I know I’m not the only one. That’s not because I don’t believe they can do great things, but because so many people use finishing to try to “save” or “hide” flawed whisky. If you start with great juice and use a great barrel to bring something more special to a whisky, then I’m all for a good finish. Here, though, we’re fully into a double maturation range. We started with the same awesome G*******h base that we’ve selling for several years. Two of these gorgeous hogsheads were dumped into a freshly emptied sherry butt more than three years ago. The result is something absolutely unique and undeniably delicious. None of the pancake syrup (thanks for that one Todd!) character that you sometimes get with finished whisky. Because the barrel was originally used for many years to age single malt, we’re getting that it’s very different than the seasoned sherry barrels that we normally see used for finishes. The color is auburn. The nose is an exotic bouquet of toasted vanilla bean, exotic wood, nougat, clean fresh leather, dried apricots and Christmas spice. The palate is medium bodied with extremely well integrated red fruit, nutty compote and baking spice. With water the nose explodes with dried stone fruits, exotic honey. nutmeg, clove and fresh sweet buns. On the palate it’s definitely very zesty and easily drinkable, but the water adds texture and length. I couldn’t be happier to have more than 500 bottles from this cask, it’s easily one of the best values we’ve ever put our name on. Stupendously high quality 20 year old malt aged for an additional three years in quality old sherry butt for less than $120? It’s so good I just don’t get why the distillery isn’t doing the same themselves.

GlenAllachie AW Exclusive

We’ve received some fantastic feedback on our GlenAllachie single cask. If you’ve recently cracked one open, we’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions, please stop by the site and leave a review… If you’ve yet to try this dram, what are you waiting for?! An exquisite dram and beautifully presented, it would make a perfect Christmas gift for any sherry bomb lover our there.

BUY NOW

As we’re fast approaching the end of the year, we would like to take this opportunity to reassure our EU members about their Society membership.

There will be no change to the way you order from us, whether it is whisky, our Single Cask Spirits or any of our other products, these will all still be available to you and it is very much business as usual. In terms of delivery, we expect some small changes to be put in place alongside new regulations coming into force on Friday 1, January 2021 once the UK leaves the European Union but this will not impact your Society orders being delivered from Edinburgh to your door with tracking visibility.

We will continue to share a dram with you at local tastings and festival events and you will still have full access online to our Unfiltered magazine and wider whisky community.

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to ensure there is minimal disruption and change and we feel we are in a great position for a seamless transition. With this in mind, we’d like to highlight a few changes and developments.

DELIVERY TIMES

To ensure that all EU members still have full access to all the whisky on offer, post Brexit, we need to ship consolidated orders weekly to duty warehouses in six countries. From here we will redistribute with local couriers like DHL to members’ houses, this means that delivery times will be around 2-3 weeks on average. We will always endeavour to minimise this and look to prioritise the EU shipments on certain occasions. We felt that the alternative of warehousing smaller, limited pockets of stock in the local hubs to reduce delivery times does not give the best member experience.

In the next few months, as the EU and UK commence trading in a new way, there may be additional delays, as we start a completely new border and logistics process as a UK supplier to EU countries. There may also be additional delays due to a reduced capacity in transport provisions. However, we have been planning for over 12 months and believe our processes for delivery are solid and secure.

LOCAL WEBSITES 

For the initial Brexit move, in phase 1, all members will continue to use www.smws.com as a single English language website, since we have already made significant developments and modifications to successfully fulfill EU orders. In this phase we mainly focus on the legal compliance of VAT and Duty calculations for local markets. Members will see very little change. However, with a further phase 2 development we look to offer local language websites for Germany, France and possibly Sweden.

PRICING

Whilst we transition, this first phase will see us hold the same pricing as the current site in British Pounds. Further development will see local pricing and currency being introduced depending on local VAT and duty rates.

CHRISTMAS ORDERS

Orders for deliveries in time for Christmas in the EU will need to be with us before 12 noon (UK time) on 17th December.

We will look to honour any last orders made on our current website, please make sure to do this before 12 noon (UK time) on 21st December, with deliveries being made before 31st December.

Sorry, any orders placed after this date will need to be refunded as we cannot legally accept orders for shipment to non-UK countries to arrive post Brexit date of 31st December, until our new EU site is live. We anticipate this to be Tuesday, 8th January 2021. We will aim not to release any new bottlings in UK or EU until the EU site is live, but if we do, we will ensure we save stock for the EU members. At this stage we anticipate the January Outturn to go on sale on Friday, 15th January 2021.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ

Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at here for membership information

This is your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers!

Spot the SMWS bottles in this amusing You Tube video

Buffalo Trace Distillery Releases

15^th Batch of Stagg Jr.

Celebrate the Holidays with 131.1 proof Bourbon 

FRANKFORT, Franklin County, Ky (Dec. 15, 2020) Buffalo Trace Distillery is releasing its winter allocation of Stagg Jr, just in time for the holidays.  This is 15^th release in the series and weighs in at 131.1 proof.  Like previous versions, Stagg Jr is uncut, unfiltered, aged over eight years, and with a taste profile similar to its elder statesman, George T. Stagg.

Tasting notes describe this barrel proof whiskey with vanilla bean and salted caramel front and center on the nose, cherries, cinnamon and oak on the palate, and a long finish of toasted vanilla, pepper, coffee and hints of sweet mint.

Introduced in 2013, Stagg Jr. quickly became a favorite of whiskey reviewers, and won a double gold medal in this year’s San Francisco Worlds Spirits Competition.  Previous accolades include being named “tried and true,” and “great value,” from competitions such as Los Angeles International Spirits Competition, New York World Spirits Competition, World Whiskies Awards, and others.

Only two batches of Stagg Jr. are produced each year. This 15^th batch is headed to retailers now.  The next release will be late spring 2021.  Suggested retail pricing for Stagg Jr. is $49.99; state taxes will vary per market.

About Stagg Jr. Bourbon

The Stagg line is named after George T. Stagg, one of the legendary craftsmen of Buffalo Trace Distillery, who was responsible for building the most dominant American distillery of the 19^th century on the banks of the Kentucky River, now known as Buffalo Trace Distillery.  Like the man it honors, the Stagg line is bold and robust, consisting of uncut, unfiltered whiskies –  Stagg Jr. and George T. Stagg, part of the Antique Collection. 

About Buffalo Trace Distillery

Buffalo Trace Distillery is an American family-owned company based in Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky. The Distillery’s rich tradition dates back to 1775 and includes such legends as E.H. Taylor, Jr., George T. Stagg, Albert B. Blanton, Orville Schupp, and Elmer T. Lee.  Buffalo Trace Distillery is a fully operational Distillery producing bourbon, rye and vodka on site and is a National Historic Landmark as well as is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Distillery has won 35 distillery titles since 2000 from such notable publications as Whisky Magazine, Whisky Advocate Magazine and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Its Col. E. H. Taylor, Jr. Four Grain Bourbon was named World Whiskey of the Year for 2018 and its William Larue Weller and Thomas H. Handy Sazerac were named 2^nd and 3^rd finest whiskeys in the world for 2020.  Buffalo Trace Distillery has also garnered more than 1,000 awards for its wide range of premium whiskies. To learn more about Buffalo Trace Distillery visit www.buffalotracedistillery.com.  To download images from Buffalo Trace Distillery visit http://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/media

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Laphroaig Quarter Cask

Kick off the festive season with a bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask and an annual subscription to jazzed, the first app dedicated to jazz.

For a full year enjoy over 50 hand curated audio channels, thousands of videos, concerts and articles all completely ad free.

Available anytime, anywhere. On iOS, Android and Sonos

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About Laphroaig Quarter Cask:

A must-try release from Laphroaig distillery, offering a vibrant twist on the 10 year old Islay classic we all know and love.

This expression was first aged in ex-bourbon casks, then finished in American Oak ‘Quarter Casks’ – barrels only 45 litres in size which offer intense impact on wood to spirit.

The combination of zesty citrus, creamy toffee and toasted vanilla with Laphroaig’s signature medicinal peat smoke works beautifully, resulting in a powerful and layered whisky which just keeps giving.

Contrasting flavours arrive layer upon layer, with more charred BBQ, nougat, liquorice, coastal brine, seaweed and TCP leading to a refreshing and savoury finish.

A wonderful release from Laphroaig, bottled at 48% and non chill filtered.

Seasons Greetings from TWL HQ!

Well what an extraordinary year 2020 has been! Never before in human history have those of us over the age of 18 been in need of a dram! Friday 18th December is the deadline for ordering from us, in time for delivery before Christmas Day, so if you haven’t already, please don’t dilly-dally! For those waiting for orders, please accept our apologies, we are just waiting for more tasting pack boxes, which are due tomorrow. Your order will therefore leave on Friday or Monday for a Monday or Tuesday delivery, many thanks for your patience!

We really do rely on, and appreciate, your custom, particularly at this time, so if one of our packs can fill a space in your Xmas list or otherwise, we would be massively grateful!

What follows is a reminder of what is available…

The Asian Whisky Tasting Pack 

As many of you will know, whiskies from Asia have taken off in a big way. First, Japan led the way, now India and Taiwan have joined the fray with some incredible whiskies to show for their efforts.

Buy Asian Whisky Tasting Pack Now (£30)

Buy Asian Whisky Gift Pack Now (£35)

The Peated Whisky Tasting Pack

As the nights continue to draw in and the weather turns colder, sometimes the only thing to turn to is a hearty, peated dram. This pack explores the smokier side of Scottish single malts.

Buy Peated Whisky Tasting Pack Now (£30)

Buy Peated Whisky Gift Pack Now (£35)

The World Whisky Tasting Pack

It’s not just Asia that is enjoying an unprecedented level of quality whisky-making and deserved interest in it. Distilleries are opening all over the world and this pack and tasting celebrates that fact.

Buy World Whisky Tasting Pack Now (£30)

Buy World Whisky Gift Pack Now (£35)

Scotch Single Malt Tasting Pack

Where most believe it all started for single malt whisky, this pack focusses on some of the most interesting and tasty variants.

Buy Scotch Single Malt Tasting Pack Now (£30)

Buy Scotch Single Malt Gift Pack Now (£35)

The Indie Whisky Tasting Pack

Probably the best way to taste rare or unusual whiskies, Independent – or Indie bottlers – buy and bottle casks when they feel they are ready themselves.

Buy Indie Whisky Tasting Pack Now (£30)

Buy Indie Whisky Gift Pack Now (£35)

English Single Malt Tasting Pack

Not bound by the same rules as Scotch whisky, this is fast becoming one of the newest and most exciting whisky categories, not to mention multi award-winning.

Buy English Single Malt Tasting Pack Now (£30)

Buy English Single Malt Gift Pack Now (£35)

Packs are available to order now, as 6x20ml ‘tasting packs’ with the whiskies alone (£30 plus delivery), OR 6x20ml ‘gift packs’, with a Glencairn whisky tasting glass, a can of Larkfire ‘Wild Water for Whisky’ and a TWL 2020 pin badge (£35 plus delivery).

All of the packs will be accompanied by a YouTube taste-along video with Eddie Ludlow. Details of how to tune into these will be included in each pack.

As mentioned above, as long as you order by FRIDAY 18th DECEMBER, we will be able to get your pack/s to you before Xmas day (courier willing!)

NOT SURE WHICH TO GET?
introducing…

TASTING PACK VOUCHERS!

We know, the choice is bewildering, so why not make it easy and buy a tasting pack, or gift pack, voucher? That was you get the gift faster and you pass on the choice to your loved one! These are available now, and can be emailed to you anytime up to the 23rd December, so are not limited by the order deadline above. The ‘Tasting Pack Gift Voucher’ is £36.95, which includes any one £30 tasting pack and delivery, whilst the ‘Gift Pack Voucher’ is £41.95 and includes any one £35 gift pack and delivery.

Buy Tasting Pack Gift Voucher (£36.95)

Buy Gift Pack Voucher (£41.95)

Gateshead Whisky News!

Latest Whisky Reviews!

READ HERE

That’s it!
We hope you have a great rest of the week and we look forward to hearing from you through social media and the normal methods!
Slainte!

Eddie

The Whisky Lounge Team

GO EXPLORING

Few things are more exciting about drinks than comparison, experimentation and contrast – whether that’s simply sitting down to look at the differences and similarities in flavour between whisky and rum, or tasting several drams from one distillery to find the common threads that define that spirit’s character.

To help you and your loved ones get the same experience without forking out for several full-sized bottles at a time, we’ve put together a huge spread of Perfect Measure Tasting Sets, all of which focus on a particular spirit, country, region, producer, flavour or other theme to help you explore your favourites, or discover something new.

For instance, to celebrate blender and bottler Compass Box’s 20th anniversary, we’ve compiled six of their whiskies – Hedonism, Hedonism Felicitas, Rogue’s Banquet, Spice Tree, Peat Monster and Peat Monster Arcana – into a single pack, so you can compare and contrast, all at a single sitting. Give a loved one the gift of discovery, or maybe just treat yourself!

SHOP ALL PERFECT MEASURE SETS

Let’s be honest, Christmas is going to be very different this year but to get into the festive mood, we’re embracing the spirit of Christmas past and the comfort of a holiday season with a retro vibe. Today we’re bringing you five seasonal casks that will fill you with the warm memories of Christmases gone by. Each one conjures the rich, sweet and spicy flavours that are synonymous with the festive season, ready to uncork a sense of merriment this year.

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The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ

Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at here for membership information

This is your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers!

Spot the SMWS bottles in this amusing You Tube video