End Date : Feb 19 2025 08:10 PM
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Lagavulin 1980 - 1995. 15 Year Old. Bottled by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Society cask number 111.1. Matured in a First Fill Spanish Dry-Oloroso Sherry Butt. 70cl. 63.3%. 110.7 Proof. No box.
From the Archives. First Ever Bottling Of Distillery 111. The distillery stands close to the ruins of Dunyvaig castle, once the stronghold of the Lord of the Isles. Here is a great opportunity to see just how different the cask makes in the flavour of mature whisky. Wet suits and burnt toast.
This whisky is quite different from the next one. It has spent the last 15 years in a first-fill, Spanish oak dry-oloroso butt. Its colour is that of old Madeira (or polished mahogany).
The neat nose is redolent of sherry, with some soap flakes and fudge. With water an extraordinary scent of neoprene (the stuff wetsuits are made of) is first noted, then a trace of marzipan, exotic smoke, caramelised sugar heather stalks, sea tangle, burnt toast. Winter smells. Great with smoked salmon, or upon retiring from a walk.

Glendronach is one of the most prominent and important distilleries in Scotland’s Highlands. The distillery was founded in the 1920s but came to wider attention in the 1960s after being taken over by Teacher’s, for which it was to become a key malt. After a low period under the notoriously careless Allied Distillers, Glendronach was revived under Billy Walker, whose Benriach Distillery Co. bought the distillery in 2008.
Walker turned around Glendronach’s fortunes by the simple expedient of great cask selection, a high quality core range and prestige bottlings of vintage sherry casks, which were already plentiful in the distillery’s inventory. This good work has continued since Walker sold the distillery to Brown Forman in 2016. At auction, 1970s sherry casks and old Teacher’s-era Glendronach bottlings are always worth seeking out, although prices now reflect the distillery’s popularity.

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.
BID | DATE | TIME | |
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£2,600.00 | 19th February 2025 | 20:00 | |
