The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has achieved a Guinness World Record title for the world’s biggest online whisky tasting as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations.
On Saturday, 30 September, 447 of its members in more than 15 countries including the UK, USA, Japan, China and Australia came together to take part in a three-dram tasting with participants around the world tasting the same three drams of whisky simultaneously.
The 45-minute event was live streamed from a newly refurbished The Vaults in Leith, Edinburgh, the spiritual home of the Society. The first dram was introduced from Edinburgh by the Society’s Master Ambassador, John McCheyne; the second from New York by Tom Smith, Senior Director of SMWS USA, and the third from Melbourne by Matt Bailey, Director of SMWS Australia.
Each of the 447 participants had to attend the tasting on an individual device with the camera on and no other person visible on screen with them, and attend the full duration of the tasting in order for the Society to set the record.
Madeleine Schmoll, event host and Social Media and Community Manager at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society UK, said, “We are delighted to announce that The Scotch Malt Whisky Society has set the world record for the most participants in an online whisky tasting event.”
“It’s amazing to see how far the Society has come since the club was founded in Edinburgh by Pip Hills and a group of friends in 1983. With the Society turning 40 years old, we felt this would be the perfect way to share in a very special simultaneous tasting. We are the pioneers of cask strength, full flavour whisky that creates conversation – that’s why people become members – and the world record tasting worked across time zones and countries to bring our members together. It’s a great example of what we are all about.”
The three Society drams tasted were Cask No. 55.78 What a Spread!, a 13-year-old rich and sweet bottling from a Speyside distillery, with tasting notes of “spiced toffee, creme brulee and a touch of fresh oak”; Cask No. 39.244 Tutti Frutti in a Wooden Bowl, an 11-year-old whisky from the SMWS Juicy Oak & Vanilla flavour profile; and Batch 15 Smokus Fruticosus, a blended malt comprised of malt whiskies from the islands of Islay & Orkney.