SMWS code 23 is Bruichladdich, in the Islay region. It is an operating distillery, founded in 1881. Any Society bottling numbered 23.x (for example 23.1, 23.42) is a single cask from Bruichladdich.
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Look out across Loch Indaal on the Rhinns of Islay and you'll find Bruichladdich, a Victorian distillery of 1881 that spent much of the 1990s standing silent, its stills cold. Then in 2001 a band of believers led by Mark Reynier woke it, Islay legend Jim McEwan at the helm and a near-heretical creed in their pockets: terroir, the radical notion that a whisky should taste of the very field and shore that made it. The old Victorian machinery still clanks and hisses. The spirit runs three ways, the unpeated Classic Laddie, the smoke-wreathed Port Charlotte, and Octomore, so ferociously peated it bends the imagination. Rémy Cointreau took the keys in 2012, but those aqua-blue bottles still carry one of whisky's great resurrection stories.
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottles single casks under numeric codes rather than distillery names, so a label reading 23.403 means cask 403 from distillery 23. That distillery is Bruichladdich, in Islay. More on Bruichladdich at Wikipedia.
Sold outNov 2023In short · Bruichladdich (Islay), 15 years.
“An immediately robust and distillate-forward example of this Islay make, one which gives the lie to the idea that it is a 'gentle' malt.…”Extract · full tasting notes at SMWS
Sold outDec 2022In short · Bruichladdich (Islay), 13 years.
“Limited to 1 per member The panel agreed this one was a textbook example of this cult Islay distillery's modern era.…”Extract · full tasting notes at SMWS
Sold outMay 2022In short · Bruichladdich (Islay), 10 years.
“Limited to 1 per member The first associations mentioned were all headed in the same direction, wintergreen ointment, Deep Heat, Vicks VapoRub and Olbas oil.…”Extract · full tasting notes at SMWS
Sold outMar 2021In short · Bruichladdich (Islay), 29 years.
“This bottle is limited to 1 per member “Gorse, beautiful - the yellow flowers of gorse in full bloom, the epitome of gorse!” It reminded us of a Rod Stewart song he…”Extract · full tasting notes at SMWS
Other Islay distilleries: 3 Bowmore, 10 Bunnahabhain, 29 Laphroaig, 33 Ardbeg, 43 Port Ellen, 53 Caol Ila, 111 Lagavulin, 127 Bruichladdich (Port Charlotte), 129 Kilchoman · all Islay codes
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