End Date : Apr 01 2026 08:10 PM
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St. Magdalene 1975 - 1987. 11 Year Old. Bottled by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Society cask number 49.1. 75cl. 64.6%. 113.1 Proof. No box.
A very rare single cask St. Magdalene 1975 bottled by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in October 1987, a month before its 12th birthday. This St. Magdalene was bottled with the SMWS code 49.1, indicating that this was the first ever Society bottling from the St. Magdalene distillery, which was also sometimes known as Linlithgow.
St. Magdalene had already been closed for a few years by the time this historic bottling was released, and Cask 49.1 was the first of only a dozen or so Society bottlings from this classic lost Lowland distillery. SMWS 49.1 was almost certainly a hogshead cask, as only 293 bottles were released, and is a phenomenal old school, austere St. Magdalene at an astonishing 64.6% natural cask strength.
St. Magdalene distillery (sometimes known as Linlithgow) is one of the greatest and most sorely missed of the lost Lowland distilleries. The distillery’s 1983 closure attracted little outcry but a handful of extraordinary Rare Malts bottlings in the late 1990s brought home the scale of the loss. Thankfully, a great many casks of St. Magdalene/Linlithgow have appeared from independent bottlers, with high strength versions by Cadenhead’s, SMWS, Douglas Laing and Gordon & MacPhail all performing well at auction.
St. Magdalene’s spirit, although sometimes showing a typical Lowland grassiness, was also frequently considerably more robust and austere than one would expect, with the pre-1975 vintages in particular displaying a minerally, oily waxiness more akin to the old Highland style malts than the soft Lowland archetype, while post-1975 vintages sometimes tend more towards elegance and fruitiness. A marvellous distillery that malt fans must try while bottlings still exist.
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 members rooms in Edinbrugh, Glasgow and London and a string of international partnerships serving its 40,000 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £850.00 | 1st April 2026 | 07:59 PM | |
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