Scotch Malt Whisky Society

It purchases individual casks from more than 170[1] malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and throughout the world, bottles them and retails directly to its members.

The origins of the Society lie in Phillip "Pip" Hills' travels around the Scottish Highlands in the late 1970s, during which he sampled several whiskies drawn straight from the cask.

Over time, the group of friends expanded to become a small syndicate and more casks were purchased, bottled and distributed to subscribing members.

Members also receive a quarterly publication called Unfiltered – an award-winning [6] magazine that keeps them up to date on Society news, plus articles from the wider whisky world.

The Society has four Members' Rooms in the UK, where whiskies are sold by the bottle or for consumption on the premises by the dram.

[7] It also has branches in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and the U.S.A.[8][citation needed] In 2010, the Society partnered with The Hotel du Vin & Malmaison group to introduce a new 'whisky snug' bar concept to the Aberdeen Malmaison, Brighton Hotel du Vin and Birmingham Hotel du Vin.

Society whisky is bottled at its original cask strength, typically upwards of 55 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV).

It is more common in the Scotch whisky industry to reduce the spirit at bottling to around 40 per cent and put it through a chill filtering process, which prevents it from clouding at low temperatures.