THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY'S LEITH WHISKY LEGACY

Recorded in the historic Vaults in Leith, Mitch Bechard is joined by SMWS “chief storyteller” Richard Goslan and Kask Whisky founder Justine Hazlehurst for a deep dive into one of Scotch whisky’s most overlooked powerhouses.

Leith was never just a port. It was a whisky engine room: bonding, brokering, blending, bottling and shipping enormous volumes of Scotch around the world. At one point, the area was home to around 90–100 bonded warehouses, yet its role in shaping the modern industry is often pushed into the background.

Richard brings The Vaults to life, from its ancient origins and long links with the drinks trade to the birth of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society in 1983. He shares how the Society’s single-cask ethos developed, why bottle 1.1 became legendary, how the tasting panel works, and how SMWS bottle names manage to be both brilliant and completely unhinged.

Justine guides us through Leith’s boom-and-bust whisky past, from Pattison’s infamous 1898 crash, to wars, consolidation, the whisky loch, and the stories still hiding in plain sight on the Leith Whisky Trail. There are disputed parrots, a very real pub puma attack, independent bottling chat, festival stories, and a reminder that whisky history is always better when it hasn’t been polished to death.

A proper sense-of-place episode from one of Scotland’s most important whisky rooms.

00:00 Welcome to The Vaults in Leith

00:48 Meet Richard Goslan and Justine Hazlehurst

02:46 Inside the history of The Vaults

05:57 Why Leith matters to Scotch whisky

08:46 The origins of the Leith Whisky Trail

11:06 Wild stories from Leith’s past

12:46 SMWS founding story and bottle labels