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KWM 2023 Whisky Calendar Blog Day 24 - SMWS 36.209 - WILL YOU JOIN THE WORM TUB CLUB?

Posted on January 6, 2024

By Evan

We are going to do things a little differently for this blog post. We are going to start with the bottle and my tasting notes. Then, I will give you more information on the distillery, and the company behind the bottling we are tasting. Here we go!

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 36.209 - WILL YOU JOIN THE WORM TUB CLUB?

SMWS Tasting Note

“The scent immediately put a smile on our faces with aromas of tobacco, prunes, cinnamon, nutmeg, cherry pie and sticky toffee pudding – do we need to go on? The palate reminded one Panellist of roasted duck with red wine cabbage and potato dumplings while others detected burnt wood, mixed nuts and cooked amarena cherries. After dilution, the list of aromas carried on – beeswax, toffee, mulled wine, stewed fresh porcini mushrooms, boysenberry chutney and orange pomander. To taste, we found that typical glycerine flavour of old sherry, slightly sweet and responsible for roundness and smoothness. Will you join the worm tub club? Following 11 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a 1st fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.”

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Dates, plums, dried blueberries, Beef bouillon cubes, battered and deep-fried onion rings, Dutch Licorice, celery salt and celery root, a touch of miso broth, and a hint of hickory.

Palate: Sweet and savoury clash with notes of pralines, salty and oily Marcona almonds, walnut liqueur, Hoisin sauce, more Dutch licorice, Werther's Original candies, and milk chocolate coated raisins.

Finish: Richly sherried and slightly drying with plenty of nuts, chocolate and dried fruit notes sticking around.

Comment: Some people get scared away when they see savoury notes mentioned in a sherried whisky. You need to taste this one, though, because there is nothing to be afraid of here! This is decadent and rich and wonderfully put together; a Benrinnes that shows big sherry yet still has the distillery character in there as well.

If you are reading this on or around December 25th, 2023 – then here is the bad news with this whisky:

  1. You do have to be an SMWS Member to purchase it.
  2. The full-sized bottles won’t be released until the first SMWS Outturn of next year, in January 2024.

That is a whole year from now! Or, about a week and a half from December 25th, 2023. So, it's not that bad.

Are you a Scotch Malt Whisky Society Member? If not, and you need information on them, read on!

About the Scotch Malt Whisky Society

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is the world's largest whisky club, and also an independent bottler. As a club, it has close to 30,000 members all over the world, and branches in close to 20 different countries. It bottles as broad a range of single cask, single malt Scotch whiskies as any other firm - if not more - and it doesn't stop there. It has also bottled Japanese whiskies, Bourbon, American Rye Whiskey, Canadian Single Malt Whisky, Scottish Grain whisky, Cognac, Armagnac, Rum, and Gin. Whether it is a whisky or another spirit, the Society always bottles the spirit from a single cask, straight from the cask, Unfiltered. Undiluted. Unrivalled.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was officially founded back in 1983. Membership to the SMWS is easy and gives you exclusive access to the widest selection of single cask single malt whiskies anywhere in the world. The Canada Chapter of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society celebrated its 10th birthday in October of 2021. Only Scotch Malt Whisky Society members can buy our exclusive single cask single malt whiskies, but anyone can purchase a sample kit for one of the monthly Outturn Tastings we hold online. We're confident once you've had a taste you will want to join the club. For more information on the SMWS and SMWS Canada, you can visit their web page at www.smws.ca.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society does not put the name of the distillery directly on the bottle or in the tasting notes. Instead, everything is codified. That brings us to the bottle for today.

Scotch Malt Whisky Society 36.209 - WILL YOU JOIN THE WORM TUB CLUB?

What does 36.209 mean? Is this a mystery malt? We have had one of those in the 2023 KWM Whisky Calendar – back on Day Eight with the Lismore 21-Year-Old. However, the numbers on an SMWS bottle tell you which distillery it comes from, if you know the codification of it.

First comes the 36. That means that this bottle comes from the 36th Distillery that the SMWS ever bottled. The .209 means that it is the 209th cask bottled by the SMWS from Distillery 36.

Both the Distillery Numbers and Cask Numbers are chronological, and reference the order in which they first appeared in an SMWS bottle. This means that the first Distillery bottled is still referred to as 1.XXX, the second Distillery ever bottled is still referred to as 2.XXX, and so on down the line. For the SMWS, Distillery 1 is Glenfarclas, Distillery 2 is Glenlivet, Distillery 3 is Bowmore, and so on. Distillery 36, which is what the bottle we tasted today is from, is Benrinnes.

To summarize: 36.209 is the 209th cask from Benrinnes Distillery that has been bottled by the SMWS. Make sense?

About Benrinnes Distillery

This Speyside distillery was originally founded in 1826 and has an early history that to put it delicately, was tumultuous. In 1826, only barely into production, the distillery flooded and was destroyed. A new Benrinnes was built a few kilometres from the original site. In 1834, the owner went bankrupt and was taken over by another owner. Thirty years later in 1864, those owners went bankrupt and new owners stepped into their place. Thirty-two years after that in 1896, the Benrinnes distillery suffered a major fire and had to be partially rebuilt and refurbished. 50 years and another ownership change later in 1956, and the distillery was completely rebuilt.

Benrinnes as a distillery is not one we see many (read: ANY) official single malt bottles from on this side of the pond. The distillery is owned by spirits behemoth Diageo, and most of its production of single malt is used for blending in the likes of J&B and Johnnie Walker.

We do see the occasional independent bottling of Benrinnes, though. Like many distilleries in a large company that we don’t see much single malt from, it does have a small but rabid following that watches for these small batch and single cask releases when they hit the market. People love Benrinnes for the rich, heavy and viscous style of whisky it creates, partially thanks to its use of Worm Tubs. Benrinnes Single Malt Scotch is prized by blenders and this group of fans alike.

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There you have it. That is our Christmas Eve Dram in the 2023 KWM Whisky Calendar. I hope you have enjoyed the whisky in the Calendar so far, and I hope you will tune in tomorrow for the final dram. See you then!

Cheers,
Evan
evan@kensingtonwinemarket.com
Facebook & Instagram: @sagelikefool

You can find all blog posts for Kensington Wine Market’s 2023 Whisky Calendar Here

This entry was posted in Whisky, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Whisky Calendars, Independent Bottler, KWM Whisky Calendar 2023

 

 

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