Millburn 1983 SMWS 16 Year Old 87.6

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in 1983 by a group of friends lead by tax accountant Phillip ‘Pip’ Hills as a private members club. The concept behind the society was to source casks from all over Scotland which would then be bottled and made available exclusively to its members. Perhaps the most famous feature of these bottles are the unique codes. Each distillery is represented by a different number and the following digits indicate that particular release. That same year, the SMWS set up its first location in Leith’s Vault buildings in Edinburgh where it still stands today.

This whisky was distilled in December 1983 and bottled in February 2000.

Millburn was the oldest of the three distilleries based in Inverness, the others being Glen Mhor and Glen Albyn, all of which closed within two years of each other. Millburn was the last, in 1985. The distillery was brought to prominence under the ownership of the Haig family at the end of the 19th century, but was always a small operation. It passed via the hands of Booth's (a London-based gin distillery), to DCL (now Diageo) in 1937. Its small stature made it an easy pick for closure during the era of oversupply in the 1980s, and sadly it has never returned. Never officially bottled in its time, the only distillery bottlings are within the Rare Malts Selection, and elusive independent releases like this are incredibly sought after.