Scotch Malt Whisky Society Tasting Panel, with Charlie MacLean

March 10, 2025

Liz and I attended a very different type of tasting event, from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society tonight.

Normally, the tastings involve new releases… and everyone samples them together, trying to guess details like the age, distillery, flavor profile, casks, and ABV for each dram.

Tonight, we were part of a tasting panel that would give us the opportunity to rate and select the whiskies that we felt the Society should release next.

So instead of guessing anything, we were told all the details up front. And we then had to determine whether we felt each whisky was “ready,” or whether it needed more time. And we also got the opportunity to provide a name for the whisky.

Note 1: The SMWS has a lot of fun names for its whiskies. For example: Stuck to the Velcro, Underwater Barbecue, Chewing Gum in a Bakery, and Two Middle Fingers of Scotch.

Note 2: Because America has stupid rules about names on consumable items, we apparently cannot use descriptions of food in our names. So things like apple, chocolate, cinnamon – can’t do it. The UK has no such rules, but the US does apparently. Makes for a lopsided competition, if you ask me.

Something to hope for: if your name is selected, I think you end up getting several bottles for free. Makes for a nice prize.

I think to date, there have been a few winners from the US tasting panels… but none so far from Chicago.

I remain hopeful. We’ll see.

A bonus for the night: we were taken through the event by Charlie MacLean.

Unfortunately, Charlie was suffering from laryngitis, and had some difficulty talking. He was given a microphone, but it was still pretty difficult to hear him talk. A bit of a bummer, since I know many folks were eager to attend because of his presence.

The same setup as a regular tasting, but with a very different process/outcome.

Elhan, talking with Charlie about casks.

Because the event took place earlier than usual, Liz and opted to also attend the after-party – at Delilah’s.

It’s still a surprise to me that I knew of Delilah’s for many years, but never understood how much of a whisky bar it was until fairly recently. Always something new to learn.