The first Tasting Panel Experience release of 2022 has finally arrived! We are so excited to share this impressive Highland cask with you!
For the last three years, we have been lucky enough to have legendary whisky expert Charlie MacLean guide our American members through The Tasting Panel Experience at events across the country. The objective is twofold: 1) offer our members the once-in-a-lifetime experience of participating to the Society’s Tasting Panel under the guidance of the Tasting Panel’s very first chairman, who comes from Scotland to be with us in person; 2) entrust these members with the task of evaluating several casks in a professional tasting format and assessing their readiness for release. Quite simply, our mission is to enable US members to choose their own US exclusive casks! The Tasting Panel Experience concluded its third edition in April of this year, and the first of three exciting US exclusive casks awaits!
Cask No. 77.70 Grace and gumption was produced just west of Inverness in the heart of the Highlands. It has been highly sought after for its classic Highland richness and weight. After eleven years in a refill ex-bourbon cask and three years in a Moscatel hogshead, the weight and intensity came through in a manner that made panelists in each city sit up and take notice. Members found apple crumble, dry sherry, salted caramel and banana nut bread with walnuts on the neat nose with a range of compelling notes on the palate. Toffee, dried apricots, wildflower honey, and old library books (in a sophisticated way!) were popular notes, as well as balsamic reduction, blue cheese, spice box and brown sugar. After adding a wee bit of water to the dram, notes of honeycomb, butterscotch, candied banana, fresh fig and fruitcake were detected on the nose. The diluted palate offered up copious amounts of saltwater taffy, spiced gingerbread and more silky butterscotch. Overall, a dynamic and deeply rewarding dram!
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the expected high popularity of this release, Cask No. 77.70 will not be available for ordering today. Instead, we invite interested members to enter the raffle below for a chance to order Cask No. 77.70. Entries must be completed by Monday October 17th at 2pm ET. 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 10/19 at 2pm ET).
We thank those members who participated in this year’s Tasting Panel Experience and helped select Cask No. 77.70, it was a perfect choice indeed! We hope all members across the US can enjoy this very special malt and, while sharing with those near and dear to you, also share in the pride we all feel for our American chapter of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society!
Slàinte mhath!
Cask No. 77.70
Title: Grace and Gumption
Tasting Note: The nose neat had plenty of personality with aromas of an old fortified wine in old leather wineskins, dusty dried flower bouquets and salty-sweet spiced pickled plums. On the palate a salty-sweet spiced pickled plums. On the palate a mixture between sweet fig and hot piccalilli chutney, black pepper, pink peppercorns and a strawberry-infused mulled wine. Water added into this eclectic range of aromas and flavours, pickled rhubarb, sea buckthorn mousse, sweet prune juice and salted butter on a slice of fruitcake while to taste sauteed fresh porcini and chocolate covered Turkish delight. After eleven years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a 2nd fill Moscatel hogshead.
Age: 14 years
Date distilled: August 2007
ABV: 58.2%
Region: Highland Northern
Barrel: Second-fill Moscatel hogshead
Outturn: 276 bottles
US Allocation: 276 bottles