Royal Lochnagar 1966-2001 - 34 Year Old - SMWS 103.8 - Northern Pines & Scented Candles

Royal Lochnagar is the smallest and one of the prettiest distilleries in Diageo's stable. Lochnagar acquired its Royal Warrant from Prince Albert in 1848 after he and Queen Victoria accepted an invitation from the distillery’s canny owner John Begg to visit the distillery, which is a stone’s throw from Balmoral.

Royal Lochnagar’s distillery capacity is just 500,000 litres and the make is an important part of both Johnnie Walker Blue Label and the Windsor blended whisky, a prominent brand in Asia. Official bottlings of Royal Lochnagar as a single malt are therefore limited to the standard 12-year-old, occasional Special Release editions and the popular Selected Reserve bottling, which first appeared in the late 1980s - at which time it was the most expensive single malt whisky in Diageo forerunner Scottish Malt Distillers’ portfolio. Indie bottlings of Lochnagar are scarce but well worth seeking out.

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.