Who Is A Member?

[Onefortheditch]

I received membership as a Christmas present and so far the whisky is very good!!

[AlarmGuy]

My wife purchased a membership for me for my birthday. The samples are on their way. This talk of going to the vaults, does the US membership have something similar?

[Mr Tattie Heid]

Yes, you can go to the Vaults when you're in Edinburgh!

[iamtdogg]

The wife bought me membership for my birthday yesterday and actually i've been very impressed thus far, and i hope it stays that way

[orange_barnet]

A belated Happy Birthday, iamtdogg! Hope it was a good one!!

[iamtdogg]

A belated Happy Birthday, iamtdogg! Hope it was a good one!!

Thanks yeah was awesome even if i do feel old now lol

[Johnnie Stumbler]

I bit the bullet a couple of months ago and signed up. Thus far I've been impressed with the whiskies I've tried. The four 'welcome' drams offered a decent selection (Laphroaig, Balmenach, Mannochmore & Arran) and I picked up a rather nice Glenfarclas from the April outturn.

I haven't visited any of the lounges yet but will be swinging by Greville St. whilst in London on 25 May to have a look. I'm also in Western Scotland mid-August, so I'll have to weigh up whether the Vaults in Leith are worth the five hour round trip. Anyone have any experience of the Vaults?

[ClubSmed]

The vaults in Leith are amazing, if you were in or around Edinburgh I would say it is a must. If you have to do a 5 hour round trip then it may not be so worth while. I will also add that a trip there can get quite expensive when you start totaling up the dram prices!

[Johnnie Stumbler]

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

As I'm heading to the London lounge in a few weeks, should I be prepared for extortionate prices? How much are we talking for an 'average' dram?

[iamtdogg]

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

As I'm heading to the London lounge in a few weeks, should I be prepared for extortionate prices? How much are we talking for an 'average' dram?

drams start at £5 and go up from there - i paid £23 for a 40year old Glen Moray as my most expensive dram. thing to remember is that they're all CS so if you'd happily pay £3 for a 40% dram paying £5 for a 60% one is't actually that bad.

[Johnnie Stumbler]

Cheers. That's entirely reasonable.

[Whiskey Cyclist]

Also I think their bottle prices are entirely reasonable too. If you take the recent 'limited edition' single cask (aren't they all limited editions?!) Glenlivet Quercus 17 yo - exclusive to Whisky Shop with 250 bottles - retailing at £200. Compare that to SMWS releases of Glenlivet, members are not being ripped off. Unlike some posters I think quality of SMWS releases remains very high if not improving in quality. Another example is the comparatively recent botting of Glenugie 99.13. I paid £110 for a 31 yo whisky from a closed distillery with a decent reputation for whisky output and with only 98 bottles from the cask. Am a London member planning on a trip soon, probably for next Friday release.

[MacDeffe]

Last year SMWS opened a bar in Vejle here in Denmark, which is just 45min train jourbney from Århus where I live.

They have the biggest selection of open SMWS bottles of all SMWS bars. Compeeting heavily with London now

The bottle price is just around 10-20% higher than UK which could be the lowest price lift seen on any bottles in Denmark, a few special offers we see from supermarkets now and then excluded

The welcome pack was 1.166 (25yo), 3.194 (14yo), 27.98 (12yo) and 64.41 (24yo) which is Glenfarclas, Bowmore, Springbank and Mannochmore. I havent tasted them yet

Bought a 35.84, a 14yo Glen Moray, fantastic whisky at my first visit.

Steffen

[mongo]

smws usa members: i am going through my annual ritual of considering a society membership, and as always, am stumbling at the $229 initial membership fee (which could be invested instead in a bottle of talisker 25, say). how happy are you with the recent offerings? does the quality of the bottles justify the high prices (and provide some payback on the membership)?

[orange_barnet]

I was, but am no longer. I didn't consider the membership renewal was worth it.

[Mr Tattie Heid]

I think I let mine lapse...haven't heard from them in a while. I really wasn't able to order enough bottles to make it worth it, but that's my issue. I'd have been very happy with it if I could have ordered a dozen bottles a year and still afford to buy plenty elsewhere, too. But I don't think I've bought a dozen bottles in the past year total.