Arran 9 Year Old 2015 SMWS Single 1st Fill Sherry Hogshead 121.118 Undulating Unctuousness Island Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2025) 70cl

1 of 284 bottles produced from a single sherry hogshead

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by Phillip 'Pip' Hills who, while travelling around Scotland in the 1970s, fell in love with whiskies drawn straight from the cask. After he expanded his syndicate the Society was purchased by Glenmorangie PLC in 2004. In 2015, the Society was sold back to private investors. In June 2021, the private owners floated the holding company The Artisanal Spirits Company plc on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.

It has a unique code system where the first number refers to the distillery and the second refers to the cask from which the bottle comes. SMWS also offers the largest range of distilleries of any independent bottler. These curiously named drams really do have something for every whisky lover!

TASTING NOTES

This was a really wonderful nose, full of robust aromas of polished leather, pipe tobacco, camphor and precious hardwoods full of resins. We also got sultanas, raisins, prunes and dark, boozy fruit cake. A great sherry profile, we all agreed. With water it evolved beautifully, revealing chen pi orange peels, five spice, tangerines and highly resinous and herbal complexities. When neat, the palate showed immediate, superb sherry influence. It was rich and balanced, with old-style weight and earthy depth. We noted thick, syrupy dark fruit flavours, balsamic, rancio and walnut liqueur with natural tar resin. Water made everything perfect, as dark fruit intensity harmonised with nuts, cocoa, dark chocolate, tobacco and some ancient Fins Bois cognac. Lush and wonderful stuff!

About Arran

The Isle of Arran has played host to many distilleries, mostly illicit and the last legal distillery closed in 1835. What is surprising is that it took until 1995 for a still to run again as the Arran distillery at Lochranza came online. Financed mostly by Harold Currie who had retired from Chivas, the team also sought investment from 2000 investors who gave up £450 for a share of future whiskies. Many of whom turned up for the official opening, including a descendent of the last person to be killed on Arran for distilling illegally. Since the initial days, Arran distillery has prospered thanks to an array of cask types and special editions. The whisky, in time, has come of age and growing demand meant an expansion in 2017, with a new pair of stills. Things went even further in 2019 when a second distillery (Lagg) was established at the southern end of Arran.

61.1% ABV

70cl

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