09/09/2025 Member Take Over: Ian Hunter aka Mr. Closed Distillery

When this event was announced, I could not remember meeting or hearing about Ian Hunter. When PS underlined he was nicknamed Mr. Closed Distillery, my curiosity was obviously piqued. I also thought it was a little weird that we had never crossed paths.

Tonight is the night, then, when we verify if this Mr. Closed Distillery is whom he claims to be.

I join JS, DW, PS, GT, Dr. CD, YM and others on the top deck. One look at the host, and I realise we have met -- at DW's Easter bash. Phew! That bodes well.

Despite tube strikes, most people made it. We start on time.

Hunter wastes no time. He tells us briefly when he became a Society member (2002), not how or why, then dives straight into the whiskies and the memorabilia he brought along, documents from yesteryear, some frankly depressing when one compares prices and selection with today's.

Take this 2002 outturn brochure, for example.
The Lowland page advertises an Inverleven,
a Rosebank and a St Magdalene.
One could buy all three for... £159

I take scant notes. The pace does not allow it and I want to enjoy the company. We try everything blind.

Dram #1

Nose: powerful nose, with marzipan soon overtaken by honeysuckle. This is bright, lively, and a tad minty, perhaps. The second nose brings honey.
Mouth: punchy, it has a mix of peach and red chilli pepper.
Finish: long, wide, fruity, it delivers peaches and peach stones, as well as a tame lick of chocolate.
Comment: with a few vague clues, I guess Coleburn, then Convalmore, even if it is clearly not the profile of the latter. We struggle to pinpoint it until the reveal. Then, it becomes embarrassingly obvious. Caperdonich is not really a rare sight at the SMWS, even these days. That said, no-one has had this older bottling. And it is very good.

38.13 24yo 1980/2005 Eiswein and red peppercorns (57.9%, SMWS Society Cask, Refill Hogshead, 268b) 8/10

Dram #2

Nose: mint crumbles, sherbet, it is rather sweet, then develops a soft citrus-peel profile and adds cosmetic powder.
Mouth: it has quite a bite, acidic and citric. It is also powdery without being chalky. The second sip is spicier, with a good dose of chilli.
Finish: chocolate rolled in rose petals. The second gulp presents dandelion stems, which is to say: plant bitterness.
Comment: Ian tells us it is a divisive distillery, which PS confirms by staring at me. I conclude that it is Cambus and dare not touch it. The man said Speyside, though, and it does not smell like a grain. Good thing I do not say anything, because it is, in fact, Pittyvaich. A Pittyvaich we have already tried in this very room, actually! More than a decade ago, granted.

90.5 10yo 1992/2002 Kola Kubes and Lilt (59.4%, SMWS Society Cask, 248b) 8/10

IH: "It has a cult following."
PS: "It's spelled with an 'n', not an 'l'."

Dram #3

Nose: this is bursting with jelly capsules, followed by fruits. It is like pulling peaches out of a plastic medicine jar. It probably smells much better than it reads.
Mouth: it has citrus foliage, but it is mostly lovely  fruits. Strawberries, rosehips, Damson plums, apricots and the softest puff of blond tobacco.
Finish: juicy Mirabelle plums and apricots.
Comment: this is excellent and my favourite, so far. I liken it in my head to 45.19. That was good, but this one is even better.

45.9 27yo 1975/2003 Cherry on top (50%, SMWS Society Cask) 9/10

Dram #4

Nose: a little brimstone mixed with juicy fruits (kumquat, calamondin, tangelo). It is also mineral and gives a whisper of Hardois the dog, wet or not.
Mouth: mosses on slate, corroded metal, fresh fruits and dried orange.
Finish: long, it is a steamroller, assertive, not aggressive. It has stewed orange segments simmering in a cast-iron pot.
Comment: some guesses, including Brora, which this obviously is not. I silently think Glenlochy, but we are told it is an Invernessian distillery. The crowd narrows it down to Millburn. It is even one we have tried before. I like it better today. Crazy how much more approachable it seems, tonight. The magic of a well-crafted sequence, eh?

87.6 16yo 1983/2000 (57%, SMWS Society Cask) 9/10

Dram #5

Nose: phwoar! Behind the obvious shoe polish from the no-less-obvious Sherry cask, it is absurdly fruity, with exploding lychee, dragon fruit, mangosteen and rambutan. Coffee pops in and out too, waving like a line-drying leather belt flapping in the wind.
Mouth: it is very powerful, even now, numbing and clearly fruity. Here are lychee, kumquat, mandarine, apricot.
Finish: long, warming, it rolls out the chocolate carpet, which is quickly trampled on by fresh citrus and cut plums, with shy lychee now in the background.
Comment: what a way to finish! The colour worried me, but this turned out to be precisely my kind of dram. Colloquially known as Mandarins in a well seasoned roasting tin, a name that appears nowhere on the label, it is remarkably different from 92.7, which shared the ABV and the cask type, though from another vintage. That one was sadly smothered by the Sherry.

92.9 20yo 1981/2001 (61.2%, SMWS Society Cask, Sherry Butt) 9/10

There. We just finished five drams in exactly one hour.

And what drams!

Beside the pace, which was too fast for me, it was a great tasting. Unpretentious, factual. I liked that Ian did not bring the obvious or more-prestigious closed distilleries. I was also glad the venue did not crowbar a current bottling into the line-up: seeing the calibre on display, that may have degraded the experience, as JS says.

I did regret that IH read tasting notes from the outturn brochures of the time, or notes he found online. For the one instance where he did not find any note (the Dallas Dhu), he even had Co-Pilot produce tasting notes for him, which I thought bizarre. Now, notes can be a useful guideline, but I find it a pity to read us those notes before we can try the drams and make our own opinion.

Off tasting, we have...

76.157 18yo 2006/2025 Tales of the Worm Tub: Behold the beast (54.3%, SMWS The Creators Collection, 1st Fill ex-Oloroso Butt, 534b)

Nose: thick leather boots, rancio, smoked ham. Then, it shifts towards hair lacquer. The second nose adds cracked black pepper and shaved wine-soaked cork.
Mouth: wine-soaked orange segments, pressed, and most of the moisture removed. Chewing injects sangria and soaked citrus peels. The second sip is drier, full of dusty elderberry and blueberry skins.
Finish: long, wine-y and fruity with a bitter orange-peel aftertaste -- in a good way.
Comment: DW tried to impress us with a recent Caperdonich and came back with this Mortlach. Woops! It is good all the same. 8/10 (Thanks for the dram, DW)

38.43 32yo 1992/2024 Homecoming: The essence of heritage -- Bar-room buzz (49.6%, SMWS The Creators Collection, 1st Fill ex-PX Barrique, 213b)

Nose: coconut wood shavings (JS), an avalanche of candied papaya, dried peach cubes and mint crumbles in the back. There is also a bunch of flowers in there, somewhere -- carnations, tulips, chamomile, canola. The second nose is more leisurely, with soft leather sofas and many cushions. It stays floral, almost hay-like.
Mouth: initially chewy, it becomes unctuous, milky, if not custard-y. We have mushy peach flesh, timid maracuja, a pinch of mint, plum, white peach, mango, palak.
Finish: mellow and custardy, it peddles white-peach flesh before expiring in a puff of mango pulp. The second gulp is in line. Maybe, we imagine vanilla-filled milk chocolate?
Comment: what did I say about recent Caperdonich, at the beginning of the tasting? This is stupendous. Simply beautiful. I like it much more than the first time we had it. 9/10 (Thanks for the dram, DW)

Well, that set us back an hour, ha! ha!

Good night out again.