FEATURE: A TO Z GUIDE • 27


I IS ALSO FOR


ICONS OF WHISKY


THE SOCIETY WAS COCK- A-HOOP TO BE NAMED INDEPENDENT BOTTLER OF THE YEAR 2012, IN WHISKY MAGAZINE’S INDEPENDENT BOTTLERS’ CHALLENGE. WE WERE


PARTICULARLY PROUD OF OUR GOLD MEDALS FOR CASK NO. 93.42 ‘EXPLOSION IN A HONEY FACTORY’


AND CASK NO. 50.41 ‘WINTER FIREWORKS’.


J


is for… JAUNTS


Whisky tastings are ten-a-penny these days, so the Society likes to shake things up and do things differently.


As well as staging events at our Members’ Rooms, we like to take tastings on the road and stage them in unusual and interesting locations. Memorable jaunts in the UK have included a special oak-inspired tasting at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, a sampling session in a capsule on the London Eye and a tasting in a VIP box at Wembley Stadium during an England football match. Further afield, our Australian members have enjoyed drams in the iconic Sydney Opera House and in the Dinosaur Hall at the Australian Museum, while a recent event in Austria took place in the prestigious surroundings of the Rolls-Royce museum. In Japan, some members celebrated the branch’s 15th birthday by transporting 15 samples of Society whisky up Mount Fuji and creating a special blend on the summit.


WHISKY JAPANESE


The Society launched its first-ever bottling of Japanese whisky in 2002 – Cask No. 116.1 ‘Coconut, pea-pods and tropical hot-houses’. It was a goundbreaking move because, although there was some trading taking place between Japanese and Scottish whisky companies, there was very little acceptance of Japanese whisky in Scotland at that time.


K MEIKLE


is for… KEMP, GEORGE


Nestled among the oddities at The Vaults is a stern plaster bust overlooking the table of the Tasting Room. This is a likeness of 19th-century carpenter George Meikle Kemp, designer of an Edinburgh icon. Following the death of Sir Walter Scott in 1832, a competition was launched to create a fitting public monument. Despite winning under an assumed name, Kemp sadly drowned before the tower [known as the Scott Monument] on Edinburgh’s Princes Street was completed. His doughty spirit lives on at The Vaults, through the


regular meetings of the George Meikle Kemp Club who, under the gaze of their patron, hatch their own plans for domination (we assume).


L


is for…


LANGUAGE The enticing and


evocative Tasting Notes that appear on the front of the Society’s bottles are always a talking point. Carefully crafted by the chair of the Tasting Panel


following the group’s discussions about the latest batch of whiskies, they are little works of art in their own right – each one distilling the thoughts of the Panel members into a tantalising taste of the whisky. And all in 100 words too so it can fit on the label, which is no mean feat! Our favourite? So many to choose from, but the Roald Dahl-inspired wording on the BFD (Big Friendly Dram) bottling was particularly brilliant: “…flying saucers seem to whizzscooter up chimneys – delumptious timmy- toddy indeed”.


CONTINUED OVERLEAF THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY


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