38.39 It’s hay season! (Vaults Collection)

Description

Distillery 38 was built across the road from its ‘mirror image’ distillery (Code 9) back in 1898 during a huge boom in demand, which was meant to supplement the demand Distillery 9 was getting at the time. They designed this now-destroyed distillery to ‘mirror’ the site across the road, but the problem was it never did. The spirit had its own unique profile and was generally ‘creamier’ and thicker than the bright and tropical plant across the road. This made replication and blending difficult. Its life as a distillery was short-lived however, and it closed down soon after opening (merely 4 years of production between 1898 and 1902) where it lay dormant for decades. Demand for blending surged again in the mid-1960s, which is when the distillery sprung back to life again, before finally getting its own name in 1977. It then ran all the way up until 2002, when it was closed again before finally being permanently demolished in 2011.

When you open your bottle of SMWS Cask 38.39, distilled in 1992, you’re literally pouring liquid history into your glass, and one of the rarest examples of this spirit ever seen in both single-cask, cask-strength form, ever. You’re enjoying a moment in Scotch whisky history that will never be repeated.

We imagined sitting by a river on a warm, sunny day and watching hay being baled in a nearby field. On the palate, sweet fruity flavours of ripe peaches and juicy pears met a super-smooth mouthfeel coming from caramelised apricots with an almond cream. A drop of water and we were presented with a bowl of lychees served in a lemongrass syrup. To taste, tropical fruits galore, with a scoop of delicate bourbon vanilla ice cream. At 26 years of age, we combined selected casks from the same distillery. We then returned the single malt into a variety of different casks to develop further. This is one of those casks.