The New Year is almost here! We are welcoming 2022 in high spirits and couldn’t be more excited to share our very first exclusive cask for the new year! Bottled exclusively for American members of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, we proudly present an exceptional cask for your Burns Night celebration – Cask No. 9.224 Harvest Hayride Happiness!

As with our recent exclusive casks, the process for choosing this special cask was a comprehensive one. With thousands of casks maturing in our warehouse in Scotland, dozens were considered and tasted to ensure that this selection would represent our commitment to not only bottling the very best single malt whisky in the world, but also offering an exceptional whisky our US members could truly appreciate on special occasions such as Burns Night.

Burns Night honours Scotland’s favourite son, poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). His birthday, on January 25^th, marks the evening Scotland and Scottish diaspora worldwide pay homage to Rabbie Burns through recitations of his poetry and songs, sharing traditional food and plenty of sturdy malt! The evening’s pinnacle is reached when one poem in particular is recited – ‘Address to a Haggis’. The Haggis dish is held in such high regard on Burns Night that it has its very own poem and deserves an expert performance by your resident bard. Equally deserving is the perfect malt to be served alongside it! Having spent all fourteen years in a first-fill ex-bourbon barrel, Cask No. 9.224 is a perfect pairing with ‘A Haggis’ and other flavourful dishes from smoky starters to toffee pudding desserts!

With Burns Night just a few weeks away, we anticipate very high interest among our members. Due to the expected high popularity of this release, Cask No. 9.224 will not be available for ordering today. Instead, we invite interested members to enter the raffle below for a chance to order Cask No. 9.224. Entries must be completed by Monday January 3^rd at 1pm EST. Winning member names will be drawn at that time. They will be contacted shortly thereafter and will have 48 hours to order their bottle (until Wednesday 1/5 at 2pm EST).

Cask No. 9.224

Title: Harvest Hayride Happiness

Tasting Note: We found a pleasant, uplifting nose of honey, lemon drizzle cake and dulce de leche, while one panellist recalled childhood harvest hayrides and enjoying homemade apple pie seated on burlap sacks in the pumpkin patch. The palate charted a course from sweet and sour (Lemsip, apple chews, perfumed pear, Tangfastics) to tobacco and spicy heat – cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, star anise and chilli. The reduced nose continued the bright autumnal theme – honeycomb, marzipan, dry leaves, perfumed tobacco, rye bread and pear and apple chutney. The palate now combined chocolate with lemon, ginger, gooseberry jam, bramble cheesecake and chewing willow twigs.

Age: 14 years

Date distilled: May 2007

ABV: 61.7%

Region: Speyside Spey

Barrel: First-Fill barrel

Outturn: 201 bottles

US Allocation: 201 bottles

Price: $140

 

Please limit one (1) bottle per member