SMWS to open Glasgow site

Following demand from its members, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) will open a new venue in Glasgow next year.

The new SMWS Members’ Room in Glasgow

The new Members’ Room will open at 38 Bath Street in the heart of Glasgow at the end of January 2020.

It will be the society’s third Scotland site after the Kaleidoscope Whisky Bar on Edinburgh’s Queen Street and its home at The Vaults in Leith, Edinburgh.

Jan Damen, operations director at SMWS, said: “We know there has always been a demand from our members for an SMWS venue in Glasgow, so we’re delighted to be opening in such a great city with a lively whisky scene.

“We have a high number of existing members in the city and the surrounding area, so we hope to provide them with their own venue to meet up and also welcome new whisky-loving members to join us there.”

The design of the new site will reflect the city’s “modern and vibrant” characteristics.

It will feature relaxed lounge seat with a ‘Vaults Snug’, and more formal areas. The venue will have rooms exclusively for SMWS members from Tuesday until Sunday. There will also be a whisky tasting room with space for up to 10 people, which will be available for private hire.

The Glasgow venue will also offer more than 300 Society bottlings spanning 12 flavour profiles such as Old & Dignified and Oily & Coastal. A range of single cask single malts will be available by the glass.

Local beers and whisky-based cocktails will also be on offer, along with a bar food menu.

SMWS members can have a sneak preview of the new Glasgow location at a free event, which will provide drams and nibbles.

In June 2017, the SMWS opened a second whisky bar in London.