Bottlers Archives - Page 12 of 12 - More Drams, Less Drama

SMWS – A small cigar can change the world

18th November 201921st July 2020Ainulindale

Lineup of the tasting — What a mighty lineup

Early september, I discovered there was events where you could taste SMWS whiskies as well as cigars – and boy what that an excellent discovery.
This time around, the French ambassadors reached out to me and asked me whether I would be interested in an “exclusive” session where we would taste a whisky selected just for France – SMWS 7.217 – Joie de vivre. This session would again be at Gentleman 1919, which I’m starting to love more and more.

Obviously, I accepted – and I can only thank them for that as I missed the Whisky Live due to friends having the bad idea of having their wedding that week-end. This was then the occasion for me to forget about the sheer pain it caused and soothe my broken heart by downing some drams.

SMWS – Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar

16th October 201921st July 2020Ainulindale

When I joined the SMWS, I first did it as I wanted to partake of some cask strength unfiltered goodness. Obviously, for a whisky aficionado, this is one of the good places to be a member of.

Then, at one random point in time I realised there was an “event” category on the website where things were actually organised. I remember thinking – surely there’s nothing in Paris. Boy, was that a stupid thought. You can find the full account of my first SMWS tasting session here.

This time around, yet another discovery: I realised there were events in a small committee at a Speakeasy where whiskies were paired with cigars. My blood just went boiling at the sheer idea of the combination of both, being a fan of cigars (H. Upmann & Romeo y Julieta in particular if you wish to know).

The lineup for the tasting: 6 SMWS bottlings. — Our whisky line-up for the evening

So I purchased my ticket and eagerly went to Gentleman 1919, in Paris, a quite excellent venue. It was 21h. I got back home at 1h45. Here’s why.

A.D. Rattray Tweet Tasting

13th September 201913th September 2019Coldorak

A few days ago I had the pleasure to be once again a participant of the A.D. Rattray Tweet Tasting, organized as usual by Steve Rush. On the menu were 3 releases already on the market, and two exclusive previews of special Cask Islay editions that will be available next month for one, and in 2020 for the other one.

SMWS – August outturn tasting event at Mersea, Paris

9th August 201921st July 2020Ainulindale

When I really got into Whisky, I had the opportunity to go on a trip to Scotland for the Spirit of Speyside festival.

We were celebrating Coldorak’s birthday and at the same time planning to enjoy Scotland and its distilleries. And boy we did.

One of the event we attended was Glen Moray’s May 4th 2019. May the fourth anyone? It was cohosted by Glen Moray and the SMWS that I didn’t know before then.

The SMWS is an independent bottler somehow atypical: it’s a club and you need to be a member if you want to partake in the goodies. It releases almost only single casks, cask strength, non chill-filtered whiskies at a very affordable price.

I was intrigued with the SMWS and it didn’t take long for me to commit myself to become a member. Fast forward to August 2019 and I finally did my first tasting session with the Parisian members at Mersea.