Whiskey_Hound
Keeping the Fire Stoked 53.327 (SMWS)
Single Malt — Islay , Scotland
Reviewed
June 30, 2020 (edited July 17, 2020)
This sample comes as a gift from @PBMichiganWolverine. This is my first experience with an IB Scotch. It comes from a distillery I'm quite fond of, and comes with a great review from the man who graciously sent this to me.
Nose: Lemon and custard leap out of the glass. Some cinnamon and black pepper heat, coupled with sea salt, seaweed, and campfire smoke. A touch of band-aid, and some nutty notes. Seafood note (leaning toward shrimp.) At cask strength, this brings the heat and the peat. Great nose.
Palate: Smoke, sea salt, and seaweed forward. Medicinal, iodine notes. More black pepper and citrus. More lemon citrus and black pepper. Some toffee, vanilla, milk chocolate, and honey sweetness can be found in the background, but they play second fiddle to the traditional Islay notes. Plenty of oak. Powerful experience.
Finish: Long and complex. Starts off with more of the smoke and maritime notes. The shrimp note from the nose returns, and then I get a big hit of lime citrus at the perfect time. Plenty of black pepper and cinnamon. Absolute beast at 58.9%.
Amazing whisky. Referencing @PBMichiganWolverine's review, I see he paid $60 for this. That's about as good a value as I can imagine considering how good this is.
My first experience with an IB Scotch is a very positive one. I'll have to start giving these some due attention. My only complaint is that I'll never be able to own a bottle for myself. Would love to see how this develops with time. Thank you @PBMichiganWolverine for giving me the opportunity to try this fantastic whisky!
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For what it’s worth there are some other very good IB‘s. Since that Caol Ila seemed to be really liked - Gordon & Macphail have some insanely good bottlings of them. Also Malts of Scotland, Signatory and Douglas Laing has fantastic bottlings from Caol Ila and other Islay distilleries too.
For anything that is particularly desirable, yes. You pay an annual membership fee to join the society and then every month they release about a dozen expressions in each area, which is called the "outturn". The bottles that will be available are pre-advertised to members so they can decide what if anything they might want to buy (you don't have to buy anything if you don't want to). Only members can buy from the outturn and purchasing goes live at a specified time (over here it's at noon on the 1st Friday in the month) and it's a feeding frenzy. It's not an auction, the prices are fixed, but you have to be quick and get a bottle in your cart and paid for before they run out. Some people buy and flip the bottles, but it's frowned on, and there are some partner bars who can sell to members. Bottles do find their way into the regular market, but it's a grey market. Prices in the U.S. typically vary from $60-$600 a bottle depending on the expression.
@PBMichiganWolverine @cascode It's a shame--though I'm glad I got to try it. Do you typically have to jump on these things immediately? SMWS releases I mean
@Whiskey_Hound 295 bottles world wide on release a few months ago, and that's it for all time.
@Whiskey_Hound i paid about $60 USD—-but I don’t think the bottling count is very high
@PBMichiganWolverine Missed your comment... But that's interesting. You said this is sold out? I did a little digging on the internet and couldn't find anything. I ask because I'd buy this in a heartbeat if the cost was within reason
This one really surprised me —-I’ve never had SMWS bottling s before. Namely, because there’s a fee to join their club, just to purchase these. But I found one at a retailer without that pesky fee.