SMWS Outturn May 2022

SMWS Outturn May 2022 goes live on Friday 6th May 2022

The Thrill Of The Taste – The Scotch Malt Whisky Society release (outturn) several single cask bottlings of Scotch, Whisk(e)y, Rum and Gin, to name a few, usually on the first Friday of every month. Below is a full list of what the SMWS The Thrill Of The Taste May 2022 outturn has to offer. The SMWS May 2022 outturn is released on Friday 6th May 2022.

See below the full list of bottles being released for the SMWS May 2022 outturn. (Don’t worry you can join the SMWS here) but be quick several of the bottlings sell out as quickly as the day they are released.

(here is a quick link to last months SMWS Outturn: SMWS April 2022 outturn).

The Thrill Of The Taste SMWS Outturn May 2022 bottles below:

Cask No 3 – Fruity Time Travel

57.0% ~ 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Hogsheads ~ 17yo ~ Islay

Flavour Hunters Festival: We’re taking a different approach to our May Festival bottlings this year, with our range of ‘Rare Releases’, a series of six small batch single malts.

From Euan, our spirits manager: This is such an elegant take on a peated Islay whisky, left to mature over the course of 17 years in less active hogsheads that have brought a beautiful herbal peat smoke along with exotic fruits. Gorgeous!….read more

£130.00

Cask No 5 – Lime and Thyme

55.8% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrels ~ 18yo ~ Lowland

Flavour Hunters Festival: We’re taking a different approach to our May Festival bottlings this year, with our range of ‘Rare Releases’, a series of six small batch single malts.

From Euan, our spirits manager: This has everything you would expect of an elegant, older Lowland whisky – in this case it’s triple distilled, with narrow cut points and matured in active bourbon wood to bring a classic and delicious Sweet, Fruity & Mellow flavour profile….read more

£90.00

Cask No 19 – Hazelnut Bubble Gum

55.6% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrels ~ 18yo ~ Highland

Flavour Hunters Festival: We’re taking a different approach to our May Festival bottlings this year, with our range of ‘Rare Releases’, a series of six small batch single malts.

From Euan, our spirits manager: The whole notion of whisky regions is open to interpretation, but if you were to imagine a classic unpeated Highland style, then this is it – it’s in our Spicy & Dry flavour profile, with a rich mouthfeel and full of wonderful fruity esters….read more

£90.00

Cask No 53 – Throw The Cork Away!

58.4% ~ 1st Fill American Oak Ex-Oloroso Sherry Hogsheads ~ 8yo ~ Islay

Flavour Hunters Festival: We’re taking a different approach to our May Festival bottlings this year, with our range of ‘Rare Releases’, a series of six small batch single malts.

From Euan, our spirits manager: Islay is the only region where we’ve bottled two festival whiskies this year, and although they’re both in our Peated flavour profile, this one shows just how different these island drams can be – even from the same region and from the same flavour profile. In this case, the spirit spent time in bourbon hogsheads before we transferred it for more than two years to first fill American oak oloroso hogsheads from our partners at Tevasa cooperage in Jerez….read more

£65.00

Cask No 93 – Changes Faster Than A Chameleon

59.7% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrels ~ 8yo ~ Campbeltown

Flavour Hunters Festival: We’re taking a different approach to our May Festival bottlings this year, with our range of ‘Rare Releases’, a series of six small batch single malts.

From Euan, our spirits manager: Campbeltown currently feels like a region in the renaissance, with news of new distilleries being planned, and we wanted to explore the town’s historic reputation for rich, characterful spirit. This is firmly in our Oily & Coastal flavour profile that is often associated with Campbeltown….read more

£58.00

1.266 – Seductive Sweetness, Sunshine and Happiness

62.4% ~ 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 9yo ~ Speyside

Seductive sweetness drew us in from first sniff – maple candies, crème brûlée and the high tea cake stand at Reid’s Hotel. The palate was sweet and tart at the same time (and with a lovely lingering mouth-feel) – toffee and dark chocolate and lots of purple fruits (blackcurrant sweets, dark cherry, bramble cheesecake and sable grapes); faint traces of white pepper and clove on the finish…read more

£58.10

4.317 – Peaty And To The Point

62.6% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 11yo ~ Highland

The initial nose was clear, direct and uncomplicated. We noted gravel, lime, mint and petrichor. And beyond that a wonderfully refreshing mineral quality that included bath salts, mineral oils, chalk and sea air. With water the nose became more fragrant with coastal herbs, mineral salts, dried seaweed and damp bonfire smoke. The neat palate was full of juicy Orcadian peat, grilled shellfish slathered with smoked olive oil and cough sweets…read more

£64.00

7.277 – Crushed Basil on Pineapples

60.3% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 13yo ~ Speyside

Heady aromas of pineapples, gooseberries and poached pears mixed with further tropical notes of coconut, mango and ripe banana before the sweetness of fudge and rice pudding arrived with pencil shavings. Tropical fruits continued on the palate alongside waxy textures and herbal flavours mixed with the cool warmth of peppermint sweets….read more

£72.60

9.239 – Peach Party

57.0% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 18yo ~ Speyside

Plenty of biscuity notes on the nose – custard creams, Garibaldi, Prinzen Rolle chocolate filled cookies, cigarette Russes plus poached peaches with almond tuiles. Lovely, sweet and mouthcoating neat with Gala red apple slices, candy heart black grapes and ripe strawberries, while in the finish a touch of smokiness like in grilled peaches with maple honey mascarpone cheese….read more

£100.80

G15.16 – Take The Floor For Strip The Willow

62.3% ~ 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 8yo ~ Highland

What a nose – wool socks drying by the fire and rally driver’s gloves, a shovelful of flinty gravel, gooseberry bush, dirty martini, hickory smoke and Lapsang Souchong. The unreduced palate had a sour-ish tang of sorrel, dark cherries and cranberry juice, smoked fish with vinegar, boiled sweets in an ashtray; then a finish of liquorice, chilli flakes and cigar smoke….read more

£50.50

16.69 – Rugged Beauty

63.4% ~ Re-Fill Re-Charred Hogshead ~ 8yo ~ Highland

Imagine sitting in a Scottish black house, dry-stone walls and thatched roofs rendered black with soot from a permanent peat fire in the centre of the building. On the palate we had rabbit stew with black olives, sundried peppers and garlic served with patatas a la pobre (poor man’s potato), fried with eggs and plenty of olive oil….read more

£54.00

23.79 – Tea-Smoked Lychees

61.7% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 10yo ~ Islay

The first associations mentioned were all headed in the same direction, wintergreen ointment, Deep Heat, Vicks VapoRub and Olbas oil. With our sinuses totally free there was the smoke, sweet incense, burning pine wood and a beach bonfire. A very appetising sweet meaty smoke of barbequed bacon chops with a cider gooseberry sauce, white pepper mayonnaise on smoked haddock sashimi and savoury stir-fired wakame….read more

£175.00

28.76 – Fresh and Nourishing

61.2% ~ 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 9yo ~ Highland

A very fresh aroma to begin, impressions of freshly folded woolen blankets, mountain air, rainy woodland, wet ferns and then freshly baked breads and pastries. Some herby scone mix, sandalwood, pebbles and chalk. A lovely balance of freshness and texture. With water we got bergamot, orange zest in black tea, aromatic green herbs, white stone fruits and toasted fennel seed…read more

£52.00

35.313 – Indian Restaurants, Humidors and Fruit Stalls

59.7% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 9yo ~ Speyside

Initially shy and then just elegant, the nose, over time, volunteered musky perfume, polished furniture, apple turnovers and pear Belle Hélène, black bun, treacle, humidors and barber shops. The palate went from simply sweet (Trebor fruit salad chews, bourbon biscuits, dark chocolate) to the spicy sweetness of cinnamon Oddfellows or lucky tatties; the finish followed with restrained tingles of gooseberry, chewed pencils and wasabi…read more

£57.00

36.188 – That Floated Our Boat!

55.2% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Oloroso Hogshead ~ 12yo ~ Speyside

On pouring and swirling round the glass, we noticed lovely beading and slow moving legs, if those sorts of things float your boat! The aromas on the nose were of kirsch, cocoa powder, pastel de nata and blood orange posset. To taste, sweet and earthy, dry yet bittersweet like a raspberry dark chocolate ripple cake (with a high cocoa content). Water released a dark fruit fragranced oil scent, and on the palate we enjoyed a bowl full of muesli with milk and dark chocolate pieces and caramelised almonds..read more

£70.30

39.243 – Packs A Sweet Punch

60.7% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 10yo ~ Speyside

A lovely fruity sweet aroma greeted the panel, apricots, peaches, pears as well as cherry menthol lozenges and Parma violets. On the palate neat, a light, fresh, sweet and fruity Mirabelle schnapps made from fully ripe Mirabelle yellow plums and arepa di pampuna (traditional pumpkin pancakes from Curacao). The addition of water released the scent of freshly cut grass before strawberry jam simmering for hours, as we prepared a traditional fruit cake with white almond marzipan…read more

£57.00

41.151 – A Sip Of Night

60.1% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Oloroso Hiogshead ~ 15yo ~ Speyside

The neat nose brimmed with toffee apples, lemon verbena, gooseberry tart, dates, sultana, leather and tobacco. Slices of Battenberg cake, flapjack, chocolate sauce and fruit loaf. Some water opened everything up nicely and brought creme caramel, winter spices, crystallised ginger, cured game meats and fennel seed. Aromatic and wonderfully heady and complex. The mouth was full of leafy earthiness, dark chocolate, hardwood resins, paprika, black miso and balsamic vinegar reduction…read more

£83.20

44.153 – Curiously Crazy!

59.6% ~ 1st Fill Ex-PX Hogshead ~ 14yo ~ Speyside

Nosing neat, memories came flooding back of ginger nut biscuits, black bun and yet another Scottish fruit cake, the Selkirk Bannock, alongside rum baba and blackstrap molasses. Nothing could prepare us for the taste which was oily and tarry like a fiery Indian black bean curry or spareribs in black pepper sauce. We reached for the water but could still feel the heat, habanero spiced Spanish style rum, lightly smoked olive oil and coal tar…read more

£76.20

48-150 – A Day At The Beach

60.0% ~ 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 9yo ~ Highland

Mmm – an interesting nose – pencil cases and apothecary’s shelves, brandy snaps, cinnamon stick, gingerbread, clove-studded orange and Fisherman’s Friends. The palate was chalky and sweet – chocolate, carob, pralines and rum truffles, with some affable warmth on the finish – tobacco strands, pickled ginger and wasabi. The reduced nose was airy and fresh – like a day at the beach perhaps (melting ice-cream, cucumber sandwiches, perfumed sun lotion, plastic loungers)…read more

£49.80

53.414 – Omnipresent Smoke

59.3% ~ Re-Fill Ex-Bourbon Hogshead ~ 9yo ~ Islay


A very intense peat smoke to start with of burnt raisins soaked in TCP (antiseptic liquid), the scent of heavy bonfire smoke stuck in a wholly jumper and the burning of old hessian coal sacks. The taste did not disappoint either, truly a big beast of a dram, with omnipresent smoke, twigs covered in yeast extract as well as smoked oysters and cod liver pate…read more

£64.30

66.216 – Carousing Round The Fire Pit

59.8% ~ 1st Fill Ex-PX Hogshead ~ 14yo ~ Highland

After 12 years in ex-bourbon wood we transferred this into a first-fill American oak PX hogshead. Carousing round the fire pit, we smelled toasted marshmallows, bangers, smouldering twigs, fire-warmed leather shoes and crème brulée. Smoke teased the palate but the cask’s dark sweetness dominated – raisins, dates and chocolate-dipped cherries, Moffat toffees and sherry; then chewing tobacco, leather and sage to finish…read more

£76.20

68-79 – Transatlantic Tannin

60.3% ~ 1st Fill Custom Toasted Barrique ~ 13yo ~ Highland

Initially we got creamy coconut macaroon, milk chocolate, wood spices, winter mulling spices, hessian, natural tar, creamola foam, caramelised pears and long aged orange liqueurs. We agreed that the combination of woods from the unusual cask type really worked well here. Water brought out red liquorice, flambeed banana, cookie dough and Belgian waffles with whipped cream…read more

£61.20

108.54 – Arsonist Torches Garden Centre

61.1% ~ 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel ~ 10yo ~ Speyside

We saw the arsonist running away from the garden centre he had just torched – he ran to the beach to light another fire, to cook his lunch – langoustines, smoked mackerel and spicy sausage. The palate had guava, monstera and vanilla on one side and hot-smoked salmon, seaweed and samphire on the other – all impressively knitted together by perfumed smoke – hints of tobacco and chilli to finish caramelised pears and long aged orange liqueurs…read more

£57.00

113.62 – A Greek ‘Spoon Sweet’

57.3% ~ 1st Fill #3 Char Barrel ~ 9yo ~ Speyside

The aroma was that of coconut lemon drizzle cake, damson muffins and Greek rose petal compote known as ‘spoon sweet’ served on a spoon as a gesture of hospitality. On the palate we went from Greece to Louisiana as we enjoyed a bananas Foster, a dessert made with bananas, vanilla ice cream and a sauce out of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, dark rum and banana liqueur…read more

£48.40