If you and I were friends, and you were wondering what to get me for the holidays, I would be ecstatic if you had the wisdom to secure me a membership in the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Unlike most scotch clubs that select some bottles (however limited or rare) from distilleries and ship them your way, the SMWS concept is a bit different — they actually hand select specific casks of scotch and bottle it themselves (usually no more than 100 bottles), so no one outside of the club will ever have the same scotch. Scouring through both large and small distilleries throughout Scotland, the experienced palettes of the SMWS guarantee highly limited edition scotches which very few people will have the luxury of experiencing. The one interesting caveat of the SMWS is that they do not tell you where the scotch is coming from — consider it a sort of global mystery taste test. All the scotches are aged between 8 to 29 years, with prices for the bottles starting at $85 and moving up from there. First year membership costs $229, and drops to $60 thereafter. Membership comes with a 4 pack of 100 ml bottles (above), plus inclusion to exclusive events and a subscription to their magazine. If you know someone who loves scotch whisky and has the extra funds to buy some fine bottles, there are worse gifts you could give.