Scotch Malt Whisky Society Reviews

Whenever I'm in Edinburgh, I pay a visit (or two) to the Leith and the Queen Street branch. Excellent atmosphere, top whiskies, very good food. I love these places and to relax there. Same goes for the London branch.

I was given a membership as a gift for Christmas. Your membership starts on the day of purchase. Surely a better system would be to initiate your membership online or on first visit. First visit to the Bath St Glasgow venue last week. Only called for drinks but decided to have some food too. Really impressed with the friendly service and the relaxing ambiance of the place.

I see a lot of negative reviews about customer service and venues. But for me, its just about great tasting whisky. Membership to this organisation was a 2024 father's day gift from my son who knows how much I love whisky. So i had the initial bottle in a lovely presentation box with booklet membership card. The whisky was called "Honeyed Leather And Heather". Interesting, I thought. With an abv of 62.6% my initial reaction was " hand sanitiser" But to be fair it was very much to my taste and had an air of high end complexity that I thought warranted the cost. Since then I have bought two bottles. One named "A Plunge into Chocolate Sponge" and another called "Well Worth Waiting For" both delicious in their own right. Costing roughly £75 a bottle they are not cheap but if you appreciate whisky and want something that's not available in the shops then I would recommend SMWS.

Poor - indifferent service at The Vaults in leith. This was a gift for my husband and I anticipated a nice private club to enjoy Malt Whisky together. This was our second (&last?) visit. We had not booked on either visit and both times we were told that we were only able to be seated at the bar - ok- we are then sat at the bar in a virtually empty space, lots and lots of couches, dining tables, easy chairs…. So I asked why we were restricted to bar seating? The answer - it was all booked! To whom? Have they not heard of allowing the table to be used until the booked time?? Service then went from indifferent to non existent as the staff chatted amongst themselves (3 staff maybe a dozen customers in the room). We might have had a second drink if any staff member had be ‘available’ to serve us - A birthday gift I wish I had researched before buying. I don’t believe we will be returning. Definitely not renewing membership next year. A waste of money.

Visited the Edinburgh Leith branch with a guest - very offhand bar service. Suffice to say he wont be joining and its doubtful if I'll renew my membership.....

Disappointed with a recent purchase from SMWS. The product description advertised a raffle entry included, which turned out to be misleading. Felt scammed by their marketing tactics. Be cautious of their promotional offers.

The product is no longer whisky, it’s the stock. Since they went public they no longer care about their members, just profit. An absolute scam at this point, you’ve been warned.

I’ve been a member for a few months now and thoroughly enjoying it! Yes the cost is worth thinking about BUT the whisky is generally much better than the usual duty free type stuff (and the prices are competitive with this). All the whiskies I’ve bought have been good (to very good) and my « standard » bottles (generally duty free bought ) are gathering dust… I don’t live near any venues which is a shame but for me it is about the whisky and this is so good (so far) I would recommend it. I have seen many comments about the price of shipping (I am in EU) and if you buy one bottle at a time this can make it expensive but if you group your purchases it is then free so then not a problem. So far the dramcierge (customer service) have been reactive and honest. At the end of the day, for me it is about the whisky and the ones I have tasted (8 and counting) have been varied and delicious.

I have been a member of SMWS for about 4 months. My interest is mainly bottles and shows. The membership was £129. A beautifully packaged box arrived with a book, sample and full bottle of 60% speyside whisky which seems like a £70 bottle for the quality of it. There’s some decent bottles available on their stock and notice that they do collaborate with many other of the distilleries Inc MacAllan and others. Time will tell what they are like.

I live in Speyside, the heart of the malt whisky country. My son gave me the gift of membership of the SMWS, thinking this would be a good present. How wrong he was! Given my location, it is impossible to visit the member only lounges and physically participate in other activities without finding overnight accommodation. Add to this the costs involved in all activities, the pretentious labelling of bottles and last, but far from least, the arrogant and dismissive nature of customer service staff. When I sent an email, the response was that they had "passed your proposal onto the relevant team who will be in contact if they are interested". In summary, I regret my son wasted his money on this organisation and I certainly would not recommend membership to those living remote from member lounges and/or for those with little time for appalling customer service and pretentiousness.

Have been a member for two years now, and its been a great experience. The venues are really impressive and the products are unlike any you can find on a shop shelf.