Scotch Malt Whisky Society

@Wierdo This is turning out to be quite an educational thread. I'll continue to have my member friend get me anything that he's tasted that sounds good. I'm getting the impression that the full membership is not worth it, especially out here in the colonies.

@BlueNote Sounds like I need to find a friend like yours!

@RianC

I'm confused. What does that mean? I translated the code and it comes out as something that does not let me post to the thread.

The first character is an x

The second is an o with something on top

And the third character is the @ sign

But when I put them together this is what I get: xð@

It must have been an invisible character before the X that screwed it up.

‘This is turning out to be quite an educational thread.’ You can say that again @BlueNote!

Learning a lot from this one.

One thing the SMWS has going for it is those seriously cool green bottles.

@Nozinan - ha ha! It wasn't meAnt to mean anything other than an attempt to speak in code

Just a failed attempt at humour I guess ...

@RianC You got me on that one too!

@RianC must be the Britsh sense of humour. I knew instantly you were taking the p**s. I then thought @Nozinan was carrying on the joke!

Flipping excelled themselves the SMWS today. Sent me an email saying 'beat the January blues by buying one of these bottles.' The email contained links to bottles that had already sold out by the time they sent the email.

'You know what SMWS I think a single cask Caol Ila might help me beat the January blues.

Oh what's that you say it's sold out?

Nevermind that bottle of Bunnahabhain you are suggesting would be an adequate alternative to the Caol Ila.

Sorry come again? That's sold out too? That is rather irksome. Sorry could you repeat that? You have plenty of the bottles of Glendullan left if I'm interested? No I don't want a f******g bottle of Glendullan. Nobody wants a f******g bottle of Glendullan. What even is Glendullan? I've never heard of it'

To top it all off to mark Burns night they paid famous Scottish writers to plug the bottles. It's like they're actively trolling us.

'We took your membership fee and gave it to this writer who's absolutely loaded anyway. They recommend you buy the Bunnahabhain because its great.....but you can't because we haven't got any to sell. Don't forget to renew.'

I want to know if they sent this email to other customers or they just composed it to send to me to wind me up after I messaged them to tell them I didn't think they were up to much and I wasn't renewing?

That would actually be quite funny.

@Wierdo Wow, if that’s how it works in the motherland I hesitate to think what a membership would entitle one to out here in the far flung reaches of the empire. But, hey, as compensation we might have the privilege of picking up the tab for Harry and Meghan when they come to stay.

This is hilarious @Wierdo....haha!

I mean, for me of course.... not for you brother!

Yeah.... I definitely wouldn’t be renewing if I were you.

Indeed @BlueNote. Indeed!

@Wierdo I completely agree with you about the flavour profiles. I don’t like the flavour profiles. Some whiskies don’t fall into the category they’ve been put in at all. I know it’s a personal taste ultimately, but some really don’t seem to near the right profile. But then I don’t put too much in stall via the distillery. Sister casks that have probably sat right next to each other for entire maturation, released at same age and exact same style of cask, ie first fill bourbon hoggie etc, can taste completely different to each other and completely different to the general style that the distillery releases themselves. Putting more emphasis on single cask as oppose to distillery.

That email you received with everything sold out annoys me too, most likely reason being these bottles sold out that quick being popular but still annoying none the less.

@Wierdo - well, they certainly helped beat the blues ... beat you round the head with them, actually

Reminds me of ...

With regard to questions about SMWS bottles being brought by flippers? This is a link to the just whisky auction currently running and specifically a bottle of the Laphroaig I was moaning about earlier in the thread that had been released just before Christmas and there were only 8 bottles available of 249.

just-whisky.co.uk/january-2020/…

Seems a flipper managed to buy one of the 8 bottles. There are several more SMWS bottles available on the current Just Whisky auction and they appear on whisky hammer all the time which is the other auction site I follow.

It's bad enough missing out on the latest Springbank special release to a flipper but at least I don't have to pay for the privilege of having access to buying bottles and then miss out. But I have to say. Paying a yearly membership to give me the chance to buy bottles I'd like, to then miss out on a bottle because it was brought by a flipper is particularly irritating. Feels like I'm funding their arsehole behaviour in some way.

I think the SMWS should code each bottle individually and then occasionally buy back their bottles from auctions or shops. When they find out the code of the bottle cancel the person's membership. Get people to sign a disclosure before they join that they wont resell the bottle for a period of x years after purchase otherwise their membership will be terminated.

@Wierdo - I remember MoM having two bottles of some Karuizawa a few years back. They split one into samples and raffled off the other but did so after tampering with the label so as to stop any profiteering further down the line.

They got some dogs abuse for it from some, as you'd expect, but, in the main, most applauded them for their integrity.

I’m all for a system where any members that on sell bottles lose their membership, simple disclose as you say stating your buy these bottles for personal drinking, if people complain then they aren’t really in it for the whisky so good riddance. If There was a way to do so legally, once a bottle was purchased and about to be sent out, to peel off the top seal cap, that way no on sale is possible. But could imagine wouldn’t go down well with on sellers.

@Wierdo what a story...easy pass on joining this club.

@Tom92 That's a good idea, but I don't think it would fly. Maybe something like you can't sell it for more than you paid for it, but again, very difficult to enforce. Speculation is a fact of life these day, in fact always has been and it's unlikely to change.

I may have mentioned on here before that Rolex do something interesting (or are planning too, can't remember which?) with their watches according to my watch mad mate.

A Rolex Submariner has a 2 year waiting list and costs about £6k. You put down a £500 deposit wait 2 years. Pay the remaining £5,500 then instantly sell your Submariner on watchfinder for £8k. Rolex don't like this and say they are proud of their watches and think they charge a fair price for them and want to sell them to people who love their watches. The reason there is a 2 year waiting list for a Submariner is that half the people who've ordered them are flippers who have no intention of ever wearing the watch.

So they have introduced a system (or are planning to) where you don't get your papers for the watch until a year after you purchased it. This puts off flippers because they can't sell the watch on without papers but don't want to have to wait a year to get the money back they've paid out.

I wish some whisky sellers would do something as clever as this.

I'm a little hesitant posting this as I don't want to seem overly negative or turn this thread into a 'bashing' of the SMWS. I'm not a member, I should add, but have been able to try a few samples of late and, while they've not been terrible, although the Glen Grant was hard work, they've not overly impressed me. Small sample size I hear you cry and yes that's a fair point but ...

There seems a lot of online chatter surrounding lack of cask availability and bottling things that simply aren't ready e.g.

malt-review.com/2020/02/…

I guess it's not a problem unique to the SMWS and I sympathise with their situation but I can't say I've been too persuaded to seek out membership. Definitely try before you buy methinks!

That Battle Axe though ... ... Must. Try. Harder.

I'm just waiting for the day when a marketing team go 'full retard' and name one, 'Brutal, Visceral Murder with Infanticide and Rape(berries).' The latest bottling from the the 'Horny' series.

This review from Malt sums up why I am not renewing my SMWS membership:

malt-review.com/2020/02/…

Jason isn't actually a member of the SMWS but as his friend was a member and they live near one of the SMWS's bars he was able to go to along and buy a sort after bottle before it was even made available to myself as an actual yearly subscription fee paying member of the SMWS.

By the time these bottles were made available to 'members' online there were just over 100 left to purchase. They went on sale at 9am, I was at work. I was able to log in at 11am, the Ardmore had sold out by this time.

The only way I can describe how frustrating this is. Imagine paying a gym membership. Turning up for a workout 5 days running to be told 'sorry we're full. Try again tomorrow'.

Even worse you look into the gym and say "hang on! Who's that guy? He's not a member!'

'You're right he's not a member but he's with his mate who is a member so we're letting him work out. Like I say we're full. Try again tomorrow. Otherwise we have a pilates class if you're interested?'

If anyone were to ask me of it is worth joining the SMWS? I would say do you live near one of their bars? If so. Then possibly. If not. No it's not worth it.

I consoled myself on missing out on the Ardmore buy buying the latest Springbank 12CS which went on sale yesterday. At least you dont have to pay a yearly subscription to grab a bottle of Springbank and if you miss out on a sort after special release. That's frustrating but it's just market forces. Another customer wasn't given preferential treatment over you.

@Wierdo - Think you've probably made the right call, mate. A Springbank 12 CS will surely soften the blow ...