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!
The SMWS are one of the Britain's most revered independent bottlers with a worldwide network of partner bars with one mission of getting as much whisky at natural cask strength without water to different nations including USA, Canada, Switzerland, UK, Austria, Germany and many others.
A young, punchy and immediately charismatic example of this left-field Highlander. We found the nose to be riddled with hessian cloth, lamp oil, old toolboxes, steel wool, young furniture, canvas, vapour rubs and mineral oil. Hints of young calvados and tart gooseberry. Reduction brought out baking powder, cornflour, oatmeal, sandalwood, oily rags and old workshops. Unusual notes of bison grass and potatoes roasted in goose fat. The palate was initially warming and spicy with herbal cough medicines, salt-baked vegetables, oatcakes spread with butter and dry roast peanuts. Water brought out olive oil grassiness, mustard powder, lime pith, putty, white wine vinegar and lanolin.
During its Invergordon era, Tullibardine was set up to produce a light, nutty malt which was mostly used when young and aged in refill casks for buyer-own blends.
The requirements of a single malt house – which Tullibardine became – necessitated some tweaking of the spirit run (introducing more high-toned floral notes now coming to the fore, with the nuttiness being dialled down) and a more 21st century wood policy with a massive influx of fresh casks.
Alcohol has been produced in Blackford for over six centuries. A brewery was operational in 1488 when James IV [the King who famously asked Friar John Cor to make aqua vitae from eight bolls of malt in 1495] stopped to buy a barrel of ale after his coronation at Scone. It could lay claim to be the oldest ‘public’ brewery in the kingdom.
Distilling was also tried. In 1798, William & Henry Bannerman opened the first Tullibardine distillery, though it only ran for a year. In 1814, Andrew Bannerman (presumably a relative) tried again. This time it operated until 1837. By the 19th century, the town had a maltings and three breweries: the original one, Gleneagles Brewery, now owned by the Sharp family, the other two by the Eadie family. Both of Eadie’s plants closed by the turn of the 20th century, leaving Gleneagles to soldier on until 1927. At this point it seemed as if this rich tradition had finally ceased, but in 1949 the famous distillery designer William Delme-Evans bought the Gleneagles Brewery site and built a new distillery there. It was the first to be built in Scotland since 1900.
In 1953 it was bought by blender Brodie Hepburn which increased capacity (see Glenturret) and from there via Invergordon (which bought Brodie Hepburn) into Whyte & Mackay (which in turn bought Invergordon) which promptly mothballed it, though retaining its extensive warehousing.
Tullibardine lay silent from 1994 until 2003, when a business consortium snapped it up. Their idea was to sell off some of the site as a retail park, using the money raised to get distilling up and running again.
In a similar fashion to Bruichladdich, the new owners found that most of the stock had been filled into old, tired casks which though suitable for some aspects of blending were not ideal for a stand-alone single malt brand. An extensive – and expensive – re-casking operation started along with the inevitable rash of ‘finished’ whiskies. The group sold their interest in 2011 to the French wine and spirit group, Picard which owns the Highland Queen and Muirhead’s brands and was looking for capacity.
The (failed) retail park venture has been bought back and a newly repackaged and reformulated range of single malts has been introduced.
About SMWS
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in 1983 by a group of friends lead by tax accountant Phillip ‘Pip’ Hills as a private members club. The concept behind the society was to source casks from all over Scotland which would then be bottled and made available exclusively to its members. Perhaps the most famous feature of these bottles are the unique codes. Each distillery is represented by a different number and the following digits indicate that particular release. That same year, the SMWS set up its first location in Leith’s Vault buildings in Edinburgh where it still stands today.
