The 36th Meeting of the Norwegian Scotch Malt Whisky Society was held at Bowmore and Amber's abode on February 22, 2002.

Members present:
The meeting commenced rather late, due to the decision of the visiting members to prolong their whisky tasting activities at the Ludvig Bar in down town Bergen prior to the meet.

The agenda for this year's AGM was:

1) Prolonged and highly intellectual speech by the GM.
2) Election of the Executive Committee:
GM: The Laird
Web Master : The Laird
Secretary: Peaty
Cash Master: 13.27

The members enthusiastically applauded the election, and are eagerly awaiting the presentation of membership activities from the newly elected committee.

It was at this point also proposed to introduce the Hall of Shame, where members failing to produce minutes of membership meetings prior to the following meet, would be ruthlessly portrayed. Furthermore, a penalty was introduced, to bring a bottle of Single Malt to the next meeting you attend, if being portrayed into the Hall of Shame. Bottle not to contain less than 0,7 litres of the genuine stuff.
3) Visit to Scotland

Springbank and Angels Share have volunteered to act as Travel Masters for this year's visit to the Whisky Trail. This after finding themselves together in the back seat of a motor vehicle during a pilgrimage in October last year. It was not stated in what situation (or position) they found themselves together ...

The members have a somewhat ambivalent attitude towards such behaviour ...
4) Other issues members wish to raise:

  • Angels Share had at an earlier point in time volunteered to build a tasting wheel. When probed by other members present, he shamefully admitted to not having produced the wheel yet, but hopefully would in the very near future ...

  • Springbank pointed out that at times he felt as if the members had lost track of why they were members of the Society, mainly to drink whisky and savour the taste. Mrs Knowles followed up by stating that there were too many whiskies served on any one night, and that consequently the members were not able to appreciate the quality of the individual whisky. The main focus has to be on getting to know and recognise the Whisky of the Night! The visitor, Mr Hirsti, on the other hand pointed out that there was too much food on the table and too few bottles, hence food took the focus away from the whisky.

  • Furthermore, at this point, 13.27 shockingly admitted that he didn't think, to which the other members feared he had retrieved into some hidden inner lair and wondered whether a night in a straightjacket was required.

  • Finally, a fixed annual competition on whisky tasting was proposed. Mrs Knowles wanted the competition limited to a Speyside, an Islay and a Highland whisky, possibly with a decent cognac included ("To spot the fake connoisseur", as she termed it). This will be considered by the new executive committee.
The AGM was concluded at 2100 hours.

A buffet of selected cheese and biscuits along with fruits were made available to the members to satisfy their hunger and not only their thirst.

The whiskies tasted this evening were:

The Whisky of the Night: The Glenlivet Archive (George and J G Smith) 43% 15 years
The Glenrothes (Speyside malt), 43%, bottled 030998, 12 years
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, 56.6%, 10 years, cask no 3.59, 1990

The tasting gave the following scores:

Whisky Angels Share Bowmore Springbank The Laird Peaty Ms. Knowles 13.27 Mr. Solberg Mr. Hirsti
Glenlivit 81-85 91-95 86-90 91-95 81-95 91-95 91-95 86-90 91-95
Glenrothes   91-95 91-95 86-90 86-90 96-100 91-95 86-90 86-90
SMWS no 3.59   86-90 91-95 96-100 91-95 81-85 81-85 81-85  

The meeting was adjourned at 2300 hours. Prior to this, Ms. Knowles had decided to vacate the meeting, and establish her private retreat in an adjoining lounge.
Synopsis written by Bowmore