The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is a national treasure. Scratch that – it is an international treasure open to all whisky lovers all around the global community. The SMWS has its roots as far back as 1983 – we’ll share its founding and its colourful founder later in this article – and this year joyously celebrates its 40th birthday. Not bad for a society that grew from just friends buying a cask to share together. They discovered the wonders of a single cask, cask-strength non chill-filtered single malt at a time when the whisky industry was obsessed more with blends and the drinking public knew little of single malts. They were – and are – pioneers, sharing for us all the glories of what is, as founder Pip Mills says, “the best distilled liquor in the world.”
1. Being a member of the SMWS
Being a member of what? Quite simply a member of the world’s top club whisky club, indeed its largest, with over 40,000 members worldwide. Being part of a whisky community brings so much enjoyment. We are talking having easy free access to exclusive Members’ Rooms, partner bar discounts, colourful tasting events, whisky education and a monthly members magazine, the fine ‘Unfiltered’. And the SMWS never sits on its hard-won laurels. Oh no – they release a new batch of around 20 different single malt whiskies every month. The SMWS’s manifesto says it all: “We’re united and constant in our passion – to share the world’s best whiskies, to bring them to life, and to make you proud to belong to the world’s best whisky club.”
2. The Vaults
The HQ of the SMWS in Leith is a building with history. Serious history, dating back as far as the 12th century. It has served many uses over the years and was owned by wine merchants JG Thomson and Co Ltd when the SMWS bought it way back in 1983. Today visiting The Vaults has become a bucket list aspirational whisky experience for whisky fans from all over the world. You can stay over here, eat here and, of course, dram here in the hallowed surrounds of a space oozing whisky heritage. We love the ceiling, crafted by artist Bob Dewar, which tells the story, or rather the colourful stories, of this unique society. The Vaults has just undergone a massive, and massively impressive, £500,000 revamp, making it look better than ever. Which neatly brings us to . . .
3. The new Vaults Members Bar
Wow, just wow, was our first thought walking into the quite brilliantly reborn Member’s Bar in Leith. Here you can dram to your heart’s content and eat very well too. We tucked into plump Shetland mussels followed by a perfectly cooked steak. The centrepiece is the 15ft-high and 30ft-wide oak bar that stocks 2,000 ultra-rare single cask single malt cask strength Scotch whiskies. Above the bar – in pride of place – reads the inscription, “The people who said it couldn’t be done were so dull”, a quote from the SMWS’s founder, loveable maverick Pip Mills. Which brings us neatly to . . .
4. Pip Hills
The whisky industry would simply be a shadow of what it is today without this elemental, brilliantly disruptive tour de force of a man. He took on an industry that was quite set in its ways in the 1980s, when that industry itself was struggling with falling sales. And this mercurial figure won. Perhaps no single person in Scottish whisky can claim to have as much a hand in the rise and rise of single malt whiskies either. Pip told us, “I was always passionate about our society not becoming a snobbish gentleman’s club, shut off from the common man and woman, and the Society has kept true to that.” They have – you don’t even need to be a member to savour the member’s bar as day member passes are available if you book in advance. A new edition of Pip Hills’ remarkable SMWS memoir, Maverick, has just been published by Birlinn.
5. SMWS Queen Street
This swish central bolthole is the other Edinburgh home of the Society. A stately Georgian townhouse, 28 Queen Street is all grand swirling staircases across four floors, high ceiling and huge period windows welcomes as a calm antidote to the busy street outside. Peer out those windows as you savour a dram from the public bar downstairs, or ease upstairs to the Members’ Bar, where the views really open up out over lush gardens towards the Firth of Forth. Four function rooms are on hand for members and non-members if you want to do a spot of business, but why would you with so much world-beating whisky around?
6. The Queen Street tasting menu
No mere whisky emporium, 28 Queen Street also conjures up proper cuisine. And we mean proper cuisine – we are talking a seven-course tasting menu alive with foodie delights. As with their beloved Scotch local provenance is key here. You can go for a more classic wine pairing, but why not venture out there and try a whisky pairing? These guys seriously know what they are doing, so they source malts to match both the menu and your palate. Dishes delighted throughout our meal, kicking off with foraged Scottish mushroom and pumpkin ravioli, moving on to a smoked chuck of Scotch beef and roast lamb. And they weren’t done there. As the whisky kept flowing so did the world-class food. Scottish blaeberries with meringue were divine, as was the pistachio and white chocolate cake. A final flourish brought a trio of artisan cheeses, served with quince jam and oatcakes. Scotland on a plate and in the glass. Sublime.
7. Taking a Leith tour with a tasting panel member
Justine Hazlehurst knows as much about whisky as any other SMWS member we know. So much so not only is she on the all-important hallowed SMWS tasting panel, but she also runs Leith Whisky Trail tours through Kask Whisky. These brilliant tours weave their way around the old whisky infrastructure of Leith, where once 100 warehouses and other whisky-related buildings bustled away. It really adds depth and richness to your whisky knowledge learning about all the old pioneers who started businesses that have grown today into household names She tells too of the transformation of Leith into the whisky hub it’s becoming again today. And of the day a puma attacked a lady in a Leith bar! You’ll have to take one of her excellent tours to learn more . . .
For more information on the Scotch Malt Whisky Society just see http://www.smws.com.
