Glenlochy 1979-1993 - 13 Year Old - SMWS 62.2

Glenlochy is one of the overlooked lost distilleries of the Highlands. The distillery was founded in 1898 but production was relatively small and Glenlochy’s output was only ever destined for the blending vats. Glenlochy was closed in 1983 by Diageo forerunners DCL during the whisky lake crisis and the distillery buildings were almost completely demolished in 1991 to make way for a hotel.

Glenlochy was never officially bottled as a single malt during its lifetime, but a handful of superb Rare Malts editions of the 1969 vintage appeared in the mid-1990s. Outstanding independent bottlings of Glenlochy have been released by Cadenhead’s, Signatory, Gordon & MacPhail and the SMWS, among others. At the time of writing in 2024 there has been only one new release of Glenlochy since 2015 so it appears that the last stock of this very fine old school Highland single malt whisky may soon be finished.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) began in late 1970s Edinburgh when founder Pip Hills persuaded a group of friends to chip in for a cask of Glenfarclas, and was officially formalised in 1983. Today the SMWS has two venues in Edinburgh, a London bar and a string of international partnerships serving its 35,000 members. 

The Society’s whiskies are known for their unique SMWS coding system. Each cask bottled is assigned two numbers, representing the distillery and the bottling number, so 1.45 is the forty-fifth cask bottled from the first distillery and 33.27 is the 27th cask from the 33rd distillery.

Glenmorangie bought the Society in 2004, but sold it in 2015 to a private consortium who floated the SMWS on the stock market in 2021 via their holding company Artisanal Spirits Co.