Can’t be there in person? Our ‘Message in a Bottle’ service allows you to add a video message to selected single malts, completely free of charge. Upon receiving their dram, the whisky fan in your life will be able to scan a QR code that will reveal your video message – a truly personal touch!
A missing link on Orkney
Wideford distillery – Islands Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Wideford distillery was located about two miles from Kirkwall on the slopes of Wideford Hill and on the Burn of Hatston, which was likely its water source. Wideford was licensed to Mr W. Traill in 1813 and he distilled there until its closure in 1825. In 1825 it closed, cannee find much info about it. A missing whisky link to our past, has anyone got more details of this lost distillery?
What I did find; Wideford Hill Chambered Cairn – built some 5,000 years ago on an artificial terrace on a steep hillside. It’s placed in a location with views out across Wide Firth and other Orkney islands. The nearby Cuween Hill chambered cairn is also visible. The cairn was intentionally in-filled during prehistory, though when and by whom is unknown, it had been opened and robbed of any contents before any antiquarians were able to investigate it in the 1800s. Its layout comprises: a narrow entranceway, a central chamber, with side walls reaching almost 3m in height, three complex side cells. Today entrance from the cairn is no longer through the low, narrow passage. Visitors now have to enter by descending through a modern roof. Part of the original roof survives and the large lintels forming the passage’s roof and the cells were constructed with architectural expertise, think about that, built so long ago, who had the brains?. The form and architectural techniques here are similar to Maeshowe. On the tomb walls there are still rare examples of Neolithic art. The presence of such imagery reinforces the relationship between tombs such as Wideford Hill and other settlements such as Skara Brae, where similar marks have been found. The Wideford Cairn faces west and as such is bathed in the light of the setting sun from the end of February. The entrance to the cairn is very low and small, unlike Maeshowe’s grand entrance to welcome the light of the midwinter sunset. The name “Wideford” probably comes from the Norse “vide-fjord” referring to the hill’s proximity to the stretch of sea known as the Wide Firth.
A few miles to the west, and facing the Wideford Hill tomb, is the Cuween Hill cairn. The name “Cuween” derives from the Old Norse, “kúa-eng”, meaning “Cattle Pasture”. The current spelling of the name “Cuween” is a fairly recent corruption. In the early years of the 20th century the hill was still written as “Kewing”, in common with other “Kewing” placenames in Orkney. Like many others in Orkney, the Cuween Cairn was thought to be the home of fairies. As a result, the local name for the cairn was simply “The Fairy Knowe.” Building a chambered cairn required considerable effort. Working only with stone tools, the Neolithic craftsmen erected structures that are estimated to have taken between 10,000 and 100,000 man-hours to complete. The sheer manpower required for the structures confirms their significance to the Neolithic people of Orkney. Stone blocks and flagstones had to be quarried, often from sites some distance from the site of the cairn, and where the chambers were cut into hills, such as Cuween, the main chamber had to be carved from solid bedrock before work on the roof could begin.The builders’ work, even by today’s standards is impressive. Their drystane walls are neat and level and the interiors today, after many thousands of years, are still stable and dry.
Orkney-Cromarty cairns: These are made up of a single long chamber, divided into stall-like “compartments” by stone uprights, found in Orkney and the Scottish mainland. Although the Orkney-Cromarty tombs do not have side cells, a few hybrid chambers, such as Unstan in Stenness, have incorporated them in their designs. Maeshowe-type Cairns: This style is unique to Orkney. The tombs have one main central chamber that is reached by a low, long entrance passage. One, or more, side chambers branch of from the main central chamber. Regarding the Maeshowe-style cairns, their construction, with larger, well-cut and fitted stones, is more monumental.
For our 12th day, originally for travel retail, but we know how hard they’ve been hit this year, We understand this retails around £110 in ‘Airport venues’.
NOW ONLY £60
We’ll keep all our deals of Christmas open until the stock is finished, even if you miss the previous day,
Celebrate the festive season in style! The latest drams to drop at whiskyshop.com are the perfect tipples to toast Christmas, Hogmanay and Chinese New Year.
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
1997 Hebridean Mulligan (Ledaig) 23 Year Old “Old Malt Cask” K&L Exclusive Single Hogshead Cask Strength Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) $119.99 View
The Isle of Mull’s only distillery was originally founded as Ledaig back in 1798. It has had a rocky history ever since with many repeated closures, sometimes decades long. But in 1993, Burn Stewart Distillers saved the day and the distillery. They rechristened it Tobermory and established today’s practice of distilling unpeated malt for half of the year and heavily peated malt for the other half. In its modern incarnation, the Tobermory name applies to the smoke free spirit and the Ledaig name for the peated variety. Here we have a gorgeous expression of the Ledaig at 21 years old aged in a hogshead that allowed all that peat to mature without being overpowered by the wood. While we had hoped to teaspoon all of the years blended malt casks with a nearby distillery, there aren’t any. Using Tobermory spirit wouldn’t technically declassify Ledaig because it’s the same distillery and therefore still a single malt. We had to look to the other Hebridiean Isles for mature spirit that could sustain this 21 year old age statement. In the end, our second shot landed on the Isle of Skye and we were able to eye-dropper a tiny amount of 23 year old Talisker into the barrel before bottling and save everyone a huge chunk of change.
Doc Swinson’s 15 Year Old “Rare Release Batch #9” K&L Exclusive Exploratory Cask Series Nonchillfiltered Small Batch Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (750ml) (Pre-Arrival) $149.99 View
Doc Swinson’s has become an absolute sensation in the bourbon world. The skeptics have been silenced and countless bourbon lovers have fallen in love with their exceptional exploratory cask 15 year. It would be negligent not to mention that for those paying attention the first batch of 15 year old (batch #6) has now become a serious collectors item. It’s successors, batch #7 & #8, sold at record speeds and have been received with equal gusto by aficionados and amateurs alike. Amazingly, our friends at Doc’s have secured this new batch of 15 year. It’s the same exact bourbon as the first three batches. As the supplier for this bourbon is extremely concerned with the preventing its source from being disclosed, the 29 barrels that went into this excellent small batch bourbon were dumped in KY before being truck in inert containers to Washington for bottling. This batch was slightly larger than the last three at 4200 bottles, an increase of 240 bottles/two barrels. The gorgeous truth about these awesome bourbons is that each batch has its own amazing character built around an amazing core of classic bourbon flavors. Except a richly textured mature bourbon character with aromas of leather, baking spice, brandied cherries, chocolate and fresh wintergreen. Perfect balance between sweet and savory on the palate with a long warming finish. Sadly, according to the bottler, this is the last of these 15 years, although they assure us they’re pushing for more. We’re prayin’ they succeed.
1993 The Road to Elgin (Linkwood) 27 Year Old “Old Malt Cask” K&L Exclusive Single Hogshead Cask Strength Blended Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) $149.99 View
Teaspooning this exceptional whisky was a very nerve-wracking endeavor. While we inherently believe that the innocuous act of adding the tiniest possible quantity of another malt to a single barrel of Scotch does nothing to diminish the quality of a particular whisky, there is an intellectual argument to be made for keeping the sanctity and purity of a single cask intact. In the end, we’ve made the decision that in almost every case the more important factor for our customers is value over image. So while we had wanted desperately to be able to name this excellent distillery and could have likely sold every bottle for much more than the 25% premium that avoiding tariffs would have afforded us, we believe that it is in the best interest of our customers to offer them the very best whiskies at the best possible prices regardless of perception. That is indeed what this special cask represents. Even years ago, when whisky was plentiful and comparatively cheap, we would have been lucky to find a deal as sweet as this one. At this advanced aged, this famous old Speyside exhibits all the finesse and elegance you’d expect. A nose of creamy malt, Seville orange peel and honey candies. Sweet rich malt and stewed fruit on the palate with kisses of toasted vanilla, caramel tuiles and touches of warming wood spice on the finish. While some would’ve paid an extra $50 to show off the famous Linkwood name, we prefer mystery and affordability. We think most of our customers do too.
Let us transport you to the beautiful banks of Loch Fyne this Christmas, with a little help from some of our best-selling spirits.
From spectacular single casks to brilliant blends, our original range of drams can help you find the ultimate gift for the whisky lover who already has everything.
🔔 Get free UK shipping on all orders over £75!
Completing your Christmas shopping list is one click away…
We are delighted to be reopening Whiski Rooms on Thursday 17th December for the festive season. We were shocked that Edinburgh didnt get moved to Tier 2 last week but we have decided to open to enjoy the Christmas vibes regardless of what tier we are in. So on Thursday we hope to welcome you back, with or without alcohol, to get into the Christmas spirit and look forward to 2021.
Its been a long haul but we are so looking forward to welcoming you back to Whiski Rooms – great vibes, stunning views over Edinburgh in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle and the best Scottish produce always guaranteed.
Valid for use in Whiski Rooms on the Mound, Whiski Bar & Restaurant on the Royal Mile and in our adjoining Whiski Shop with over 500 whiskies, gift hampers and Scottish gifts.
Karuizawa Distillers and Komoro Distillery – a new chapter in Nagano whisky making
Karuizawa is a hefty name in Japanese whisky. A town with an eponymous distillery whose whiskies now change hands for many thousands of pounds a bottle. A distillery which is not only closed but has also been demolished, removing any hope of it reopening despite its booming popularity. However, there will soon be whisky in Karuizawa again – get ready for Karuizawa Distillers and Komoro Distillery.
Karuizawa Distillers is a new project bringing together long-time Karuizawa residents Koji and Yoshie Shimaoka with Ian Chang, the distiller and blender best known for his work at Kavalan, Taiwan’s biggest whisky distillery. When Ian left Kavalan last year there were lots of rumours about what he would do next – the answer is building and opening Komoro Distillery.
Komoro is a town just to the west of Karuizawa, and, like its neighrbour, also sits in the shadow of Mount Asama, the most active volcano on Japan’s main island of Honshu. While Karuizawa is a resort town, with skiing in winter, and hiking and golf in the summer, Komoro is much quieter, a getaway for those looking to play in the outdoors without the crowds. The distillery site is on the northern edge of Komoro and ticks a lots of boxes: it’s easy to get to and has a nearby natural water source. At 910 metres above sea level, the distillery will also be the highest in Japan – it has a claim to fame already, and it’s not even been built yet.
The distillery is designed to look modern but also blend in with its surroundings
The distillery has been designed by Akira Sogo, an architect known for projects that work with and integrate with their environment. This is appropriate for Komoro Distillery, which has a focus not only on making great whisky, but also being green – Karuizawa Distillers’ overall aim is “to make the best Japanese single malt whisky, in the most environmentally friendly way possible, whilst honouring and protecting the legacy of the Karuizawa name.”
Learn more about the closed Karuizawa distillery >
The plans are in and work starts on construction early in 2021. Ian and the team expect to run their first spirit in early 2022.
The distillery is only the first part of the project. Along with a visitor centre, the team are also building a whisky academy, headed up by long-time friend of The Whisky Exchange, Eddie Ludlow of The Whisky Lounge. Koji Shimaoka had read Eddie’s book Whisky Tasting: A Course and quickly grabbed him for the project.
The team: Founder Koji Shimaoka, distiller Ian Chang, global product manager Kellie Tu, chief educator Eddie Ludlow and brand consultant Amanda Ludlow.
Komoro Distillery itself is also just phase one. The Shimaokas aren’t stopping with just Komoro, and already have plans to build more distilleries over the next decade. Japanese whisky continues to grow.
Japan is going through a whisky boom. Fans from around the world are snapping up whiskies from the country, and even the inclusion of kanji on a label can cause prices to spike. With supply outstripping demand and Japan’s whisky legislation allowing spirit produced elsewhere in the world to be called Japanese, times are difficult for whisky from the country. But things are already starting to look up.
Learn more in our Focus on Japanese Whisky >
Komoro Distillery and Karuizawa Distillers are the latest new faces on the Japanese whisky scene, joining the 20+ distilleries that are already operating in the country, from the tiny to the massive. It’s very difficult to start a distillery in Japan, a country famed for its complex bureaucracy, but times are very much changing and we expect this new wave of distillers to continue. With new regulations in the works, the landscape will alter over the coming years and the future is looking increasingly bright for Japanese whisky.
With Ian Chang at the helm, we hope Komoro will continue to honour the legacy of the Karuizawa region, and look forward to trying his whisky when it is finally ready. It certainly is exciting times.
Massive favourite of ours, the OLD PULTENEY 12.
A cracking dram for the budget,
ONLY £23.99
Once the stock is gone, it’s gone!
We’ll keep all our deals of Christmas open until the stock is finished, even if you miss the previous day. Matured wholly in air-dried, hand-selected ex-bourbon casks, the ‘unashamedly excellent’ Old Pulteney 12-years-old is the definitive expression in the Old Pulteney family. Traditionally crafted using techniques that other distillers have long abandoned, this winner of numerous gold medals at the most prestigious international competitions is a high water-mark of quality spirits.
Appearance: Deep amber, red golden (with a slight pink hue) sparkling with a copper glow.
Aroma: Medium to high intensity with a briny hint of sea air.
Taste: Dry, medium bodied and smooth, redolent of honey and cream, faintly salty with a slight spicy note and a sweet long-lasting finish.
