High Society

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is under new ownership and enjoying new premises. Our Mystery Visitor went and checked out one of our more interesting members' clubs

If you haven't joined yet, you are running out of excuses. I refer, of course, to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a group of enthusiasts dedicated to the pursuit of their own single cask bottlings of very special malts, and their rather handsome new premises at 28 Queen Street, Edinburgh.

The Society's original headquarters remain in Leith, on Edinburgh's northern fringes, where there is always reason not to go. By night the haunt of some very underdressed young women who seem remarkably enthusiastic to make new male friends, its streets are crowded by day with property developers and wannabe public relations executives.

Best avoided then by gentlefolk of great taste and discernment, The Society's natural audience.

But, with this new venture, the Society has moved up market. Queen Street is right in the heart of Edinburgh's famed New Town, so named for being built in the 18th century. It's a gracious Georgian terrace, overlooking handsome private gardens with a view to the Firth of Forth and Kingdom of Fife beyond. If you squint a little you can look down on Leith (this is Edinburgh, after all).

Sadly, number 28 had fallen on hard times.

Like many of the fine buildings in the New Town it had been adapted for office use sometime after the war, a conversion neither sympathetic nor appropriate. Recently, however, with the demand for large open floors and miles of computer cabling, office users have abandoned these city centre conversions for purpose-built office parks and E...

• By : Mystery Visitor
• In : Distillery Focus
• Issue : 42
• Page : 28
• Words : 702