The Scotch Malt Whisky Society bottles its first Australian whisky – 147.1 Jacaranda Jam

Luke McCarthy -
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The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, one of the world’s leading membership-based whisky clubs, has bottled its first Australian whisky cask, with the August release of 147.1 Jacaranda Jam.

The release is the latest in a string of international independent bottlings of Australian whisky, adding to recent selections by That Boutique-y Whisky Company, Berry Bros. & Rudd, Adelphi and several others over the last few years.

 

Supplied

Started in 1983 by mountaineer and businessman Pip Hills, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) has 30,000+ members worldwide, including an active branch in Australia that was first established in 2002.

The Society releases around 15+ new single cask, cask strength, panel-approved whiskies every month for its membership base, with each bottling given a code to represent the distillery and the number of casks released. It’s now the world’s largest whisky club, and some of its single casks have become legendary in the malt whisky canon.

Originally, Scotch whisky was all the society bottled. But in 1988, the first Irish malt whiskey, Bushmills, was released, causing consternation throughout the membership base.

Consternation turned to uproar among members when the society bottled two Japanese malt whiskies from the now renowned Yoichi Distillery in 2002. The two SMWS Yoichi’s, originally priced at £40 and £47 pounds respectively, are now worth a little more than that.

 

The first Japanese SMWS whiskies – Supplied

Since then, the SMWS have bottled whisky and other spirits from numerous countries, including India, Taiwan, England, Wales, the U.S., Denmark and Sweden to name a few.

But the question on a lot of Australian lips, including mine, has been: why has it taken the SMWS so long to bottle an Australian whisky?

Now that question has been answered, with the arrival of the first Australian SMWS bottling, a two year old single malt first-fill apera cask produced by Archie Rose Distillery in Sydney.

The road to this release has been long and windy, as Matt Bailey, the national ambassador for SMWS Australia, told me.

‘The society first started looking at bottling an Australian whisky back in 2008, so it’s been a long time in the making… This is a milestone, a moment in Australian whisky history, and a moment in Society history,’ says Bailey.

‘This is the very first single cask Australian whisky ever to pass the scrupulous noses of our expert tasting panel. Bottled exclusively for members of the Society, Cask 147.1 Jacaranda Jam presents a seismic shift in how Australian whisky is presented to the world, and a strong collaboration with the distillery itself in getting here.’

 

Matt Bailey SMWS Australia – Supplied 

Andrew Derbidge, director and cellarmaster for SMWS Australia and a renowned whisky writer, says it was quite a ride to this first bottling, from obstacles in getting access to the right casks, issues with pricing, and then potential candidate whiskies not passing the SMWS’s main panel in Scotland.

‘It’s been a long and involved journey that reinforces you can’t just throw spirit into a barrel and hope for the best,’ says Derbidge.

‘Whilst it’s been a long time coming for our members, the wait has been worth it, and the result is a very Australian whisky that we’re all proud of.’

Following this first bottling, SMWS Australia have also revealed that they will release 148.1 in coming months from a different Australian distillery.

Bottled in Australia at 63.1% ABV natural cask strength, 147.1 Jacaranda Jam will be available to Australian SMWS members on Friday 6th August through smws.com.au.

I managed to get my hands on a wee sample of 147.1, and you can read my review below.

Disclosure: I contributed an article on the early history of Australian whisky to the SMWS’s Australian Outturn for the upcoming release.

  • 147.1 Jacaranda Jam 2 Year Old (SMWS)
    The Stats
    • ABV: 63.1%
    • Price Band: $ $ $ $ $
    • Style: Single malt whisky
    • Production Story: Distilled at Archie Rose Distillery on the 1st of February 2018. Matured in a first-fill apera quarter cask and selected and bottled in 2021. 130 bottles in total.
    • Location: Sydney, NSW
    • Score: 89
    Nose
    It's a little prickly, needs time to settle (water helps). But then lots of dark chocolate and milk coffee. Burnt caramel, fig jam and macadamia. Orange cake and spice from the apera.
    Palate
    Decadent, and very palate coating. Much more settled than the nose here. Oreo biscuits, a hint of meaty smoke, and an old, almost amontillado nuttiness emerges, suggestive of something hidden away in an old dunnage, which is completely bizarre considering its age. No overt woodiness or tannin here, despite the thick presence of the apera, which doesn't turn too winey either. Fascinating tension between the darker, roasted characters from the malt and the sweet, rich spice offered up by the apera.
    Finish
    Super long here. Just keeps travelling.
    Comments
    A focused, evocative expression of Archie Rose's single malt program. The nose has some prickle and bite, which opens up with time, but the palate is brilliant from start to finish - staggering that this is just over two years old. It gives you a clear, incisive look at the Archie malt profile, and big time fans will want a taste of that (good luck landing a bottle, though). I'm still unsure how I feel about the collision of malts, particularly the peated component, but it's growing on me. Finally, an Australian whisky in SMWS livery (about time).
How We Score
Luke McCarthy
Luke McCarthy is the editor and publisher of Oz Whisky Review. An independent writer, author and drinks columnist, Luke's written about whisky and spirits for numerous Australian and international publications and is a judge at the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards. His book, The Australian Spirits Guide, the first to tackle the history and resurgence of the Australian spirits industry, was published in 2016 by Hardie Grant Books.