Hakushu 1981 SMWS 21 Year Old 120.1

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.

A rare independant single cask Hakushu distilled in Novemberr 1981 and bottled as a 21 year old by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in June 2003.

Hakushu was the third distillery built by Suntory, established in 1973 to shoulder some of the malt production burden for Yamazaki. The latter’s grain production had moved entirely to the new Chita distillery the year prior as well. Hakushu was built at the foot of the Southern Japan Alps, a location deliberately chosen by Suntory to provide a contrast to the style of spirit produced at Yamazaki. Interestingly, a second distillery was built in 1981 (referred to as Hakushu East) which has stills of varying shapes and sizes which are able to produce a wide range of distillate character. This is in contrast to the now-dormant old site (referred to as Hakushu West) which had 24 large stills identical in shape and size, but only capable of producing one particular style of distillate. The first Hakushu single malt was bottled in 1994.

One of 373 bottles.