SMWS Rhosdhu 8yo (Loch Lomond)
G15.23 : Tuck Shop Treats In An Old School Desk | 60.6% ABV
Cracking the SMWS Code
We’re completely spoiled for choice these days are we not? Copious amounts of official bottlings from distilleries everywhere. With more being released each and every week, it’s hard to keep up. In the search for that next belter of a whisky bottle, the tempting offers are coming hard and fast.
At the time of me writing this, it’s officially ‘Black Friday’ on every single website to ever exist. It’s been ‘Black week’ or ‘Black month’ in terms of endless ‘sales’ in the November and December run-up to Christmas. But, with so many offers, it can be hard to see what the real bargains are amidst all the noise. I find myself asking, ‘Do I really need this? Or am I just enticed by the offer?’ Sometimes it’s both but I gotta confess; I love me a whisky bargain.
Ever since I came home from the Glasgow Whisky Festival weekend, new releases have been quite relentless. A wonderful weekend, it was the recharge and spark for reigniting my whisky interest that I didn’t know I needed. Before then nothing was really catching my eye and, up to that point, I hadn’t really settled with a good pour due to travelling for work and generally being so distracted and busy. But now I’m noticing the bottles I tasted at the Glasgow weekend appearing online, among other tempting offerings that look downright delicious. Gotta catch ‘em all right?
Yet, it’s different these days. What’s casting weight onto the - already heavy - FOMO train aren’t the official releases, but the indies. Dialling in my preferences, these days I tend to keep to my favourite distilleries when shopping for new bottles: Balmenach, Ardmore, Linkwood to name but a few. But now we’re seeing some of the newer distilleries pop up as indie offerings too.
The most recent LBD Glasgow reviewed here sounded excellent; Cadenhead’s have just released their 5 year old Lochlea and even newer English distilleries are on the indie scene like the Adelphi 5 year old bottle of White Peak (distillers of the Wire Works single malt). It’s refreshing to see newer liquid and presented differently to us, which only adds to the excitement around the liquid in that bottle.
A significant and established independent bottler that I’ve only really started to take notice of has been Scotch Malt Whisky Society. They’ve been kicking around since 1983 and, I think, bring some of the most unique and interesting bottles and labels to the whisky market ever since. Known for their quirky bottle names, peculiar tasting notes and donning a code (or society distillery and cask number), these tall, dark-green bottles are well known amongst whisky fans and stand out on shelves.
However, I was quite intimidated by SMWS at the beginning of my whisky journey. But honestly, any indie bottler scared me. How was I to know if this very specific cask and bottling of a brand would be any good? ‘I’ll stick to the official bottlings first’, I thought. But as my curiosity began to grow, and my own research into what flavours I’d enjoy expanded, indie bottles navigated me down a path of nuance, specificity and excitement, one I’ve never looked back on. But the intimidation with ‘the Society’ stemmed from my perception and assumption that this members only arrangement was like an old boys club. A frat house of older, experienced whisky heads that could rhyme off the distillery and subsequent SMWS codes from memory.
The initial fee to join was also off putting. I think it sits around £70 - 100 (why so wildly varied?) which I didn’t feel like parting with. Yes you can choose to receive a bottle with a sign-up, but that’s whisky money. And whisky money I didn’t fancy being gambled on whatever mystery bottle I get sent. I decided not to take the risk.
Going back to the bottle coding system, I genuinely did think that folk who bought these bottles had them all memorised. Like it was part of their initiation, like something you’d be tested on. Crazy, I know, but I’m just giving you some insight into how I perceived the set up.
Thankfully though the internet has since provided us with a code breakdown and a quick Google will solve our queries. The WhiskySaga SMWS codes list is one I look up if curious, or on the hunt for a particular distillery; again, just sticking to the codes from distilleries I know and love. With that, I’ve been able to ask friends who are members of the society to pick up a bottle for me if or when they’re shopping or if the latest outturn has a particular bottle of interest. Recently, however, my friend Leejay - of Whisky Liberation Front fame - forwarded on a code for new members to join for free. I thought, I’ll be having that!
There’s some feedback from Wally on this membership barrier too; despite being a long-time member, he’s not renewed this year. The last time he renewed, he found himself in company where everyone had paid less than he did, and some paid nothing at all. Worse, due to the nature of the structure of SMWS, he couldn’t take advantage of some of the online offers for membership at his local venue in Glasgow. He felt strongly that a lower membership fee that remained static and uniform - if there has to be one at all - would be preferable over volatile ups and downs or a disconnect between the franchised venue and their online presence. They seem to be teaching their membership to pause and wait for more tempting renewal offers, rather than just sign up automatically each year at a fair and consistent price.
Anyway, I was fortunate enough to visit Wally’s venue in Glasgow’s Bath Street (one club of four in total: headquartered in Leith, Edinburgh, another in Edinburgh’s Queen Street and a fourth in London). Tagging along with the Hallion Battalion at last year’s Glasgow Whisky Festival, we found ourselves with free time in Glasgow on the Friday before. We ended up playing the game of, ‘Go buy a round, don’t tell us what it is and we’ll attempt a guess’. It was hugely entertaining and a fantastic place to do so. With a beautiful interior and a comfortable atmosphere it was the perfect start to an incredible weekend of laughs and drams. I hear the food there is quite good too.
So with that I became a bit of an SMWS fan, but I still wouldn’t fork out for my own membership until the free offer came along. I’ll let you know how I get on when the renewal rolls around. In the meantime, with the bottle-code cheat sheet on hand, I’ll always keep an eye out for latest outturn specials, as well as what might pop up on auction sites now feeling more confident about what I’m purchasing. I can’t recommend the membership quite yet, but I’d recommend maybe getting a bottle or tasting set through a friend who might be a member first. Or perhaps visiting one of their members’ clubs would be an ideal day out for a spot of lunch and a dram for dessert.
Review
Rhosdhu 8yo (Loch Lomond), Single Grain Scotch Whisky, SMWS G15.23 “Tuck Shop Treats in an Old School Desk”, First-fill ex-bourbon barrel, November 2013, 60.6% ABV
£50 retail (£25 paid on offer)
Big thanks to North Coast Drammer Tony who managed to bundle this onto his SMWS order for me, before I had my own membership sorted. I couldn’t say no to an indie cask strength bottle for £25(!) and I was even more delighted when I found out it was from Loch Lomond.
With this bottle being code G15.23, ‘G15’ tells us that we have some Rhosdhu single grain from Loch Lomond, while the ‘.23’ can tell us that this is the 23rd release of this code from SMWS. Rhosdhu is their single grain produced by distilling 100% malted barley in a continuous still. The resulting whisky is bottled, officially by the distillery, as Loch Lomond Single Grain. As far as I’m aware, Loch Lomond has no plans to release under the ‘Rhosdhu’ name (as they do for their Inchmoan or Inchmurrin malts) and this remains a ‘trade name’ for the liquid rather than a brand.
Nose
Sawdust. Musty dried wood. Strawberry bon bon sweets. There’s some boiled fruit sweets in there too, with wine gums. Toffee apples and loads of corn syrup sweetness. Dried grass cuttings. Some coconut oil; reminding me of sun-tan lotion. Brown sugar, vanilla biscuits; almost like custard creams. Crème brûlée. A hint of a Bounty bar in here, with some wafts of PVC glue and a brand new pencil case. It finishes off with some flaked almonds, more coconut in the form of desiccated, and even a wee lick of English mustard.
Palate
Chocolate and coconut right away, there’s that Bounty bar I found on the nose. Mixture of sultanas and raisins, with honeycomb, some malt loaf and melted butter. Drying and, after a few sips, it turns a little sour, but not off putting. Hints of savoury teriyaki sauce and a slightly meaty element slowly develops. Hazelnuts, peanut butter and a fresh bag of whole roasted coffee beans. Spice in the form of clove rock sweets.
It’s approachable, not hot or fiery in any way. A nice weight in the mouth, coating the palate with an enjoyable dryness. A short finish but not before some of that chocolate pops up at the end.
The Dregs
Once Tony messaged saying this bottle was only £25 (I think at the time they also had older offerings heavily discounted), I couldn’t say no. £25 for a cask strength bottle of whisky? Easy. Take my money.
What I have here then is a style of Loch Lomond that I’ve never tasted or experienced before. Having such a diverse range of whisky being produced by the guys up in Alexandria is wonderful. An enjoyable experience in tasting this SMWS offering, and I think I’d even have been quite happy after paying the full asking price of £50.
While sold out, this one might pop up again at auction.
It won’t be the last Rhosdhu I'll taste as I seek out some more to see how different it might be in other cask types or even more mature at 12 or so years old.
Such an approachable whisky too. Not once was there intense heat or a powerful kick when sipping on this at 60.6% ABV. A silky experience with fresh flavours and plenty of complexity and grip; I found myself going back for more quite frequently. It has little wisps of a pure grain whisky with that plastic/PVC glue element coming through, but it’s minimal.
I wouldn’t sleep on SMWS and the bottles they churn out. While it can be a lot sometimes, it can be fun browsing the bottle names and you often find something that speaks to you and where your flavour chase, and price band, is at that moment in time.
In terms of me recommending a membership sign-up, however, it seems SMWS are teaching us to wait until there’s an offer.
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. HF