Scotch Malt Whisky Society Scotch Malt Whisky Society The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), founded in Edinburgh in 1983, is a membership organisation which bottles and sells single cask, single malt whisky. It purchases individual casks from more than 125 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and throughout the world, bottles them and retails directly to its members. It also runs three private members' rooms in the UK and in several international locations. 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. Hills was
Straight whiskey water, cordial, or other mixer. Thus, in bartending terminology, "straight" is typically synonymous with "neat". The core aging requirement that defines a whiskey as "straight" is if the distillate has spent at least two years stored in charred new oak barrels, except corn whiskey which must use uncharred or used oak barrels. The spirit mellows in this time and penetrates the wood, extracting many of the flavor compounds and caramelized wood sugars. A straight whiskey that has been aged less than four years is required to be labeled with an age statement describing the actual age of the product. Other