Six Blind Drams: SMWS June 2026 Outturn Preview at Oakland Whiskey Library

There's something about a blind tasting that strips away all the pretense. No labels, no preconceptions, no "oh this is Ardbeg, of course I love it." Just the liquid in the glass and whatever story it's willing to tell you.

That was the idea behind the SMWS June 2026 Outturn Preview I hosted at the Oakland Whiskey Library on May 31st — a chance for friends and fellow enthusiasts to taste six upcoming Society casks before they went on sale, all poured blind, all requiring a guess before the reveal. The OWL's intimate private room, with its wall of bottles and warm light, was the perfect setting for it.

We moved through six very different drams that night, and what struck me most wasn't any single whisky — it was how the room responded. Every cask sparked a debate. Every reveal landed differently.

Here's how the evening went.

Cask 1: 5.127 "Ripples in a Rainbow"

We opened with a quiet provocation. Auchentoshan — triple-distilled on the banks of the Clyde — has a reputation for delicacy. Light, floral, elegant. So I was curious what the room would make of 20 years in first-fill virgin oak.

Poured blind, nobody guessed Lowland. The nose was a riot of concentrated fruit cordials, fresh oak, and coriander — dried apricots and peaches floating in a current of white chocolate, ginger, and nougat. With water it softened beautifully: apple blossom, cinnamon buns, banana foam sweets, pears poaching in sauternes. It felt like a Speyside had wandered south and spent a long vacation in the sun.

The reveal surprised people. Twenty years in fresh American oak had given this spirit weight and complexity nobody expected from the region. A proper scene-setter.

Cask 2: 9.282 "Pay Attention"

Glen Grant is a Speyside institution — fast fermentations, brilliant copper stills, intensely aromatic spirit. They're known for youthful brightness, which made this 19-year first-fill barrel an interesting proposition.

The nose landed in custard cream territory: pain aux raisins, almond pastries, white chocolate pistachio truffles, fresh apple and pear. Then the palate swung unexpected: eucalyptus, lemon meringue, a wheatgrass zinger, and eventually — after water — something almost daiquiri-like. Fresh lime, light rum, sugar syrup. On a Speyside malt.

Classic Glen Grant doesn't usually go there, but 19 years in new wood found a side of this distillery worth paying attention to. The name earned itself.

Cask 3: 82.54 "Everything Everywhere All At Once"

Mid-evening, mid-palate reset required. Cask 82.54 was a Two-to-One bottling: two casks of spirit split mid-maturation — one into fresh Oloroso, one into second-fill PX — then married together. On paper it sounds chaotic. In practice it's one of the most intriguing whiskies of the evening.

The nose opened with fruit chewing gum, honeydew melon, orange and pear drops, then turned: beeswax, lemongrass, chamomile, crème brûlée, banoffee pie. The palate was all sherbet lemons, candied nuts, syrupy stone fruit — followed by a dry finish of eucalyptus, tobacco, sweet chilli, and cassia bark.

Nobody guessed Highland. Nobody guessed 13 years. The married sherry casks pulled the spirit far beyond its age. At $145 for that level of complexity, it was one of the clear steals of the night.

Cask 4: 113.74 "So, This Is the Solstice..."

If 82.54 was a riddle, 113.74 was a declaration. Braeval — officially "Braes of Glenlivet," tucked in a remote Speyside valley — spent 12 years in ex-bourbon before a three-year finish in a first-fill American oak Oloroso cask. The result is dense, rich, and unambiguously festive.

Dense fruit cake on the nose. Warm custard. Sticky demerara. The palate followed through: cherry pie, white rum, mango, nutmeg. Water added burnt honeycomb and promoted the raisin notes higher. The finish rang with winter spice and nougat long after the glass was empty.

This felt like December in a glass served in late May. Nobody complained. At 60.7% it was appropriately built, and $165 for this level of cask-driven richness felt honest.

Cask 5: 10.276 "Roll Up Your Sleeves..."

Here's the one that broke the room.

Bunnahabhain is Islay's contrarian — unpeated, oily, briny, sitting on the island's north coast making something quietly different while everyone else floods the world with smoke. This cask spent 13 years in ex-bourbon, then two years in first-fill PX. Pedro Ximénez doesn't negotiate: it transforms.

Poured blind, the nose was immediately polarizing. Waxed hessian, oiled wood, dark dried fruits, dank dunnage warehouse, long-aged balsamic sherry, black olive. The room was split between "incredibly complex" and "challenging." Reduction added Iberico ham, leather, camphor, and pipe tobacco alongside figs in syrup and aged Armagnac.

The palate: dark chocolate, roasted artichokes, intense dark fruit cake. Water brought almond paste, cream sherry, cayenne, espresso, and coffee walnut cake.

Unpeated Islay in PX sherry is genuinely rare. The maritime earthiness and concentrated dark fruit play against each other in a way that demands your full attention. Hence the name.

Cask 6: 122.77 "Peat Bog Picnic"

We ended young, smoky, and defiant.

Croftengea is Loch Lomond's heavily peated alter ego — a Highland distillery that shouldn't be making Islay-style peat bombs but does anyway. At only 8 years old, the conventional wisdom says it's too young. Two years in second-fill Oloroso (mellow, measured sherry influence) says otherwise.

The nose was an immediate crowd-pleaser: glazed doughnuts, smoky bacon, vegetable stock, a peat bog on a heather-burning afternoon. The palate delivered beechwood-smoked bacon in a buttered baguette with crispy seaweed, hot sauce, and honey — then water lifted the salinity and added coal smoke and old diesel locomotive exhaust. The finish came back honey-led with raspberry and plum.

At $110, this was the best value dram of the evening. Younger doesn't mean lesser — it just means different. This one was all muscle and energy, exactly what you want from heavily peated spirit.

The Verdict

Six casks. Zero labels revealed until after the nose and first sip. The room's guesses were all over the place — which is exactly the point.

The SMWS format strips away the power of branding and forces you to engage with what's actually in the glass. That's a hard thing to do in a world where label design and distillery reputation do so much of the heavy lifting. At Oakland Whiskey Library, surrounded by a wall of bottles and great company, it's a little easier.

If you missed this outturn, several of these casks are still available through SMWS America while they last. The 82.54 (Glencadam, $145) and 122.77 (Croftengea, $110) in particular are worth moving on quickly.

More events coming. Watch this space.