Single Malt Society of Madison members gathered earlier this year to celebrate Burns Night.
The Single Malt Society of Madison knows how to have fun with whisky. The club holds monthly themed tastings under epic titles like Ardbegeddon and Laphroiagasm. They know how to go the extra mile, too: The annual Halloween meeting typically is held in a graveyard, and each January, the members have a Burns Night dinner.
“We have one main rule for people who want to be a member,” says club president Jason Craig. “And that is, no wet blankets. We try to make the club very fun as opposed to stuffy.”
Society members credit Craig for his colorful ideas and advanced planning; for the past two years, he has constructed yearly themes like peat and cask-finishing, with each month’s meeting a sub-genre of that theme, a single-brand vertical or a flight of oloroso sherry-finished whiskies, for example. “The theme-ing of it,” Scott Rogers, a member since 2016, says, “I think it has really helped define things and make it more of an event.”
The Single Malt Society of Madison was founded in the spring of 2012, as more of a casual gathering of people who frequented local spirits shop vomFASS. Manager Greg Long would chat with the single malt patrons, inviting some to stay late one night for drinks. From there, it became a dozen or so people chipping in $50 a year to share a middle-shelf bottle each month.
Over the years, new members took different paths to discovering the group. Sophia Stevenson had family friends who purchased casks of Springbank on a trip to Scotland in the ‘90s, meaning she was exposed to good scotch early on. In 2019, when she was looking for ways to try different whiskies without spending too much, she was introduced to a member who suggested she join. Jason Berthiaume says that despite having a poor sense of smell, he was drawn to the big aromas and flavors of scotch, and has only taken his love for it deeper since joining in 2020. In 2000, Rogers returned from a trip to the UK with a few bottles of scotch, but lacked the proper appreciation for them. He eventually joined the group and his perception of whisky forever changed.
“I discovered that Ardbeg and I are the perfect pair,” he says, noting that he primarily drank Speyside and Lowland scotches before. “This club is sort of what opened my mind to the whole world of single malts and the different types of scotches that are available.”
Meetings look different now that the group has grown. Craig collects the annual $90 membership dues that he then uses to purchase three whiskies, all adhering to that month’s theme—Kilkerran, Connemara, and Tamdhu for the oloroso-finished flight. Members can also volunteer whiskies of their own that might fit, with the evening’s total reaching between eight and 12 bottles.
“Somebody always ends up organizing them from left to right if you want to do this as a flight, maybe it’s youngest to oldest or it’s least peaty to most peaty,” Jason Frederick, who joined in 2018, says. But after an opening round of announcements, members are able to approach the whiskies however they choose. “It’s all of our club, but it’s everybody’s individual club too. So if you want to drink them backward, drink them backward. If you want to pick your favorite one and just drink that all night long, no one’s going to judge you.”
Memorable whiskies include a 1984 Caol Ila, vintage bottlings of Glendronach 18 and 21 year old, and a Christmas edition Kilchoman Machir Bay. And though they love scotch, they’re also branching out. In July they focused on American whiskey, with past tastings featuring Westland and Balcones. They’ve also started visiting local distilleries, like Dancing Goat in nearby Cambridge.
No matter the setting, the vibe is always festive. “It’s a social event, and the whisky just happens to be there,” Craig says. That attitude, paired with Craig’s planning, has worked to attract like-minded single malt enthusiasts. “It hooked me from the start,” Stevenson says.
CLUB INSIDER
LOCATION: Madison, Wisconsin
YEAR FOUNDED: 2012
NUMBER OF MEMBERS: 35
MEMBERSHIP: Private
DUES: $90 annually
