1.9.8.3. 40th Anniversary Collection

Harkening back to the Society’s founding in 1983, some of the very first distilleries SMWS worked with have been gathered to offer an exceptional tasting experience – the 1.9.8.3. 40^th Anniversary Bundle! This quartet is packed with flavour drawing on Speyside and Islay casks to comprise this numerical ode to our beginnings. Cask No. 1.282 Shadow show features a mouth-filling dram from our very first distillery. Dark molasses notes are brightened by citrus, vanilla and honey in this richly endowed dram. Cask No. 9.275 Intricacy greets us with floral and tropical notes surrounding waxy, malty whisky in this 19-year-old instant classic. One of the rarest casks we’ve seen in years resides in Cask No. 8.43 Shaded by flowers, the first release from this distillery since 2006! Opulence abounds in this full-term PX matured dram that explodes onto the scene with dried fruits, baking spices, nuts, and dark confections. We complete our 1983 flavour adventure with a peated favourite in Cask No. 3.349 A whirlpool of flavor. Hallmark perfumed smoke accompanies a panoply of fresh fruits and peaty ash for a complex single malt to savour slowly. Slàinte mhath!

Cask No. 1.282 - Shadow show
Date distilled: February 2013
Cask: First-fill Cosecha wine barrique
Age: 10 years
Alcohol: 61.5%
Region: Speyside Spey
700mL bottle format

Tasting note: After five years in an ex-bourbon barrel we transferred this into a first fill cosecha wine barrique. The nose suggested orange peel shavings floating in a glass of rum on a French-polished table, while liquorice and clove shadows flitted round the reflective surface. The palate had a mouth-coating, oily texture and flavours of lychee and blood orange, with some weightier umbrations of treacle, molasses and burnt orange skins. The reduced nose teased us with honey on buttered scones, lemon curd and orange blossom. The palate now had vanilla custard, pink lemonade, hazelnut pralines and a finish reminiscent of mead.


Cask No. 9.275 - Intricacy
Date distilled: September 2003
Cask: First-fill barrel
Age: 19 years
Alcohol: 60.9%
Region: Speyside Spey
700mL bottle format

Tasting note: A lovely nose brimmed with soft green and yellow fruits initially, ahead of flowers in full bloom, heavy with pollens, and beyond that honey cake, lime curds and scents of new leather and shilling ales. Some water brought notes of burlap sacks, caramelised pineapple, buttered oatcakes and fruity muesli. The neat palate displayed a beautifully intricate and delicate thread of smoky and waxy notes, plus pumpkinseed oils, salted caramel and lanolin, as orchard fruits with dried coconut hung in the background. Once water was added it became dominated by sweet cereals, brown bread, hoppy ales, butter and freshly muddled green herbs. Hints of rolling tobacco and light waxiness lingered in the aftertaste. 

Cask No. 8.43 - Shaded by flowers
Date distilled: November 2015
Cask: First-fill Pedro Ximenez butt
Age: 7 years
Alcohol: 55.7%
Region: Speyside Spey
700mL bottle format

Tasting note: This opened with a big, no-nonsense initial aroma of custard with mulling spices, warm coffee grounds, walnut cake, dusty old bodega funk, mace, allspice and toasted almond flakes. With time a slightly sweeter, earthier edge emerged, like earthen-floored wine cellar must and walnut wine. Water brought out more aromatic aspects such as hothouse flowers, tobacco leaf and boiled mint sweets, plus a touch of candied grapefruit. The neat palate was surprisingly rounded, featuring lots of demerara sugar, plum wine, fennel seeds and treacle tart with a hint of blood orange. With reduction we found a much more intense and direct sweetness, characterised by flavours of blackcurrant jam, dates, plums in cognac, raisins and toasted oak lactones. 

Cask No. 3.349 - A whirlpool of flavor

Date distilled: February 2004
Cask: Second-fill hogshead
Age: 18 years
Alcohol: 57.9%
Region: Islay
700mL bottle format

Tasting note: A sweet fragrance of Turkish delight and coconut harmonised with aromatic riesling and moscatel wine, creating a perfect symbiosis with dried peat and wood ash. The palate too was a delight – layers of cherry fondant melted over pressed flowers, rose petals and crumbly earth. An enhanced fruity demeanour appeared by adding water. Now watermelon, pineapple and lemon zest swirled around with the riesling wine, like a whirlpool of happiness, carrying flotsam of flaked almonds, crushed hazelnuts and soft-centred meringue. The palate was now a splendorous amalgamation of apple candy and sugared orange peel, balancing with raw peat, campfire ash and suggestions of bay leaves and lemongrass.