What's the big idea?

You have to be pretty old to remember the beginnings of the Society and we find that visitors often ask: “What exactly is it that makes the Society different from any of the other whisky clubs, and what’s so different about Society whiskies?”

It’s a question which doesn’t have a simple answer, for we did so many things which we were told would be impossible or illegal, though they have since been copied by almost the entire Scotch whisky industry, not to mention the makers of brandy, rum, bourbon and several other distilled spirits. But since all the big distillers have copied us, what is there that distinguishes the Society today?

I have given this some thought recently and have come to the conclusion that fundamentally it’s really about ideas. After all, we didn’t buy any distilleries or introduce any new technology, so how come we changed the practices of drinks corporations around the world?

When we started, Scotch whisky was not in a good place. Though still a world leader, its sales had been declining and it was seen as a downmarket drink for old men. And nobody in the industry had any idea what to do about it. We came to whisky from the outside and saw lots of opportunities which those guys couldn’t, all led by ideas.

Firstly, there was my discovery that Scotch whisky of peerless quality was lying unregarded in casks in corners of warehouses, and was just getting mixed in cheap blends because the old men in the industry couldn’t see a market for it. There was a market: it was people like us. We created it in The Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

Secondly, we had the revolutionary idea that ordinary people like us had all the equipment required to discern the flavours of really fine spirit. There was no mystery: all you needed was an ordinary nose and the idea that you might learn to use it intelligently.

Thirdly, and most importantly – this was the Big Idea – we were having so much fun that we thought that people like us would enjoy being part of a Society whose purpose was simple friendship in the appreciation of drink which probably wasn’t good for us.

The core of the Society was a group of my friends: we had formed ourselves into a syndicate to buy casks of whisky for our own enjoyment. I had discovered, quite by accident, that if you could get whisky straight from a really fine cask where it had been maturing for 10 years or so, it tasted incomparably better than the same stuff in a proprietary bottle. And ordinary folk like us could appreciate the difference.

It took some time to discover exactly why our drams tasted so great. By the time we had done that, we had so many friends clamouring for membership of the syndicate that we decided to make the thing public and formed The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, in The Vaults in Leith, Edinburgh. We didn’t advertise: we didn’t need to. People found out about us and wanted to join. They still do. We have about 40,000 members in dozens of countries. They are attracted by the idea of appreciating what is generally admitted to be the finest distilled liquor on the planet in agreeable circumstances: not because they consider themselves connoisseurs and therefore superior beings. But because they know that, being ordinary humans, they have in their noses (given a little education) a superb instrument for examining the wonderful variations in flavour of which well-matured whisky is capable.

And – this is the Big Idea in practice – they know that doing this among a group of your friends is about as enjoyable and interesting a way of spending your life as any of us can imagine. If you wander into one of the Society’s Members’ Rooms, or one its partner bars, you can be sure to meet people who feel as you do, even if you don’t have a language in common. Other than whisky, that is.

Pip Hills is member #001 of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society and at the age of 84 continues to come up with various Big Ideas from his home in Montrose