Ardmore Archives - Whisky a Day

Whisky #545: Ardmore 2008 Signatory Vintage 8 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt

January 5, 2019 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

Whisky #545: Ardmore 2008 Signatory Vintage 8 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt (Celebrating 60th Anniversary of La Maison du Whisky). Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 62.2%. Tasted at Whisky a Day HQ, $18 (30mL sample from Casa de Vinos).

Colour: Golden honey.

Nose: It smacks you in the nose initially with a hit of smoke and hessian sacks. But with time in the glass it softens and the smoke lifts, leaving some cocoa and cherry notes.

Palate: Going back for the charred sausages at the end of the BBQ, you’ve already had your fill but you want another bite. A black pepper zing on the tongue, along with golden syrup and intense salted caramel.

Finish: Salty and smokey, almost cool smoke on the tongue. Like ripping into a stick of biltong that leaves a long salty tang on the front and mid palate.

Comments: An independent bottling of Ardmore by Signatory Vintage to celebrate the 60th anniversary of La Maison du Whisky, a renowned French whisky importer and distributor. That’s more confusing than a polygamist’s family tree, but no matter…it is delicious juice, regardless of its lineage. Single cask, cask strength Ardmore is a fantastically powerful and unique Highlands whisky…love it!

Whisky #524: Ardmore Legacy Lightly Peated Single Malt

April 1, 2018 by Whisky a Day 1 Comment

by Ardmore Legacy Lightly Peated Single Malt. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 40%. $13 (50mL bottle).

When the new girls at sailing insist on pouring your whisky…

Colour: Bright gold.

Nose: Fresh lemons, straw and some peat. The smokiness quickly fades with some time in the glass, leaving sweet lemon notes.

Palate: Cool smoke, not as intense as the nose suggested. Creamy, yet thin on the palate.

Finish: Smokey charcoal, liquorice and lemon meringue. Medium length, with the smokiness the last to fade.

Comments: After a day sailing on Sydney Harbour with good friends old and new, a whisky was in order. The Ardmore Legacy was light and delicate, but ultimately not as approachable as the two delightful ladies who came sailing with us and generously offered to pour the whisky.

Whisky #510: Berry Bros. & Rudd 8 Year Old Ardmore 2008 Single Malt Small Batch for The Whisky Club

November 17, 2017 by Whisky a Day 2 Comments

by Berry Bros. & Rudd 8 Year Old Ardmore 2008 Single Malt Small Batch for The Whisky Club. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 46.0%. Tasted at home, $135 (bottle).

Colour: Pale sandstone.

Nose: Blueberry tarts, fresh cream and sweet juicy lemon jellies. A soft, cool smoke hints at what’s to come.

Palate: Orange marmalade on hot buttered toast. Some creme brûlée that’s had a bit too long under the blow torch – it’s sweet and creamy, but there’s also some burnt sugar and smoke coming through too. It’s a light touch on the palate.

Finish: It’s like roasted marshmallows on a camp fire – smokey, creamy and a warm fuzzy feeling to finish. Medium length.

Comments: A small batch release comprising just 7 barrels, this 8 Year Old Ardmore 2008 was bottled for The Whisky Club in Australia. It has a smokey rather than botanical peat influence, one that starts soft and gradually builds as you make your way through each sip.

I reckon it’s the perfect Friday night whisky – the kind when you’re exhausted after a week at work, you’ve come home and put on some music before you crash on the couch with that first whisky in your hand.

A lighter style of whisky to start the night, but with enough variety of flavours to steer you in a number of directions for your next dram – do you want to go down the path of a Speyside fruit-driven whisky next? Or maybe the peat has tickled you in funny places and an Islay whisky with more oomph is what’s up next?

Either way, it’s a great appetiser for a quiet night of whisky to help you unwind from the working week.

Whisky #504: SMWS 66.86 Dancing Round the Campfire

October 11, 2017 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by SMWS 66.86 Dancing Round the Campfire. Speyside, Scotland. 10 year old single cask single malt from Ardmore Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 60.7%. Tasted at home, $159 (bottle).

Let’s continue the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) week to celebrate Whisky a Day reaching whisky #500 by exploring another cask strength single cask whisky from Ardmore Distillery. We had a look at another SMWS Ardmore yesterday – the SMWS 66.75 David Faces Up to Goliath – so let’s see how this one compares.

Colour: Pale rose gold.

Nose: A real nose prickle. Like someone has given your nose hairs a decent tug. Pine needles, nori sheets and heavy smoke, a freshly opened packet of liquorice. But dominated by peat.

Palate: Explosive. Leather and woody notes melded together. Mouth coating smokiness, a slight buttery hint…which is only overpowered by the love in the room as I share this whisky with my two very good mates who I’ve just moved into a new apartment with & whom enjoy a good whisky.

Finish: Extremely long, salty sea and some faint salted caramel notes as the sweet smokiness subsides.

Comments: Not a whisky for the faint hearted, this is definitely more up-front and in your face than the SMWS 66.75 David Faces Up to Goliath Ardmore reviewed yesterday. If you’re introducing friends to the SMWS or to peaty whiskies, this is probably not the one, it could be a bit full on. But if you’re confident they can handle a full-throttle peat monster with a difference…let them loose on this beauty.

Whisky #503: SMWS 66.75 David Faces Up to Goliath

October 10, 2017 by Whisky a Day 1 Comment

by SMWS 66.75 David Faces Up to Goliath. 11 year old single cask single malt from Ardmore Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 59.3%. Tasted at home, $185 (bottle).

Colour: Faded gold.

Nose: Hessian sacks, fresh hay. Like walking into a horse stable. Sticks of liquorice too.

Palate: Like gnawing on BBQ lamb cutlets…meaty, smokey and with a hint of charcoal.

Finish: Smoked paprika and salty beef jerky, with a long fade.

Comments: One of the things I love about Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) whiskies is their quirky names and tasting notes on the bottle. The SMWS tasting committee absolutely nail it sometimes, and other times you’re left wondering if this might have been the tenth whisky they’d tasted that night as the descriptions get a little wilder.

Regardless of whether you pick up some, all or none of the official descriptors that appear on the label, it’s always an intriguing prelude to the inevitably amazing (and undoubtedly unique) whisky you’re about to taste.

I’ve yet to have a SMWS whisky I didn’t enjoy – some have been incredible, others have been merely fantastic. This one is no exception.

Whisky #497: North Star Ardmore 8 Year Old 2008 Single Cask

September 13, 2017 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by North Star Ardmore 8 Year Old 2008 Single Cask. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 57.1%. Tasted at home, $215 (bottle).

What type of whisky soothes a broken heart? We’ve all been there – the breakups that leave you with an all-consuming sea of emotions. Emptiness, confusion, and a sadness that physically hurts and makes you feel ill.

But when your lover and best friend breaks up with you, what whisky do you turn to to numb the pain? To make you feel something, to distract you from the thousand questions and “what ifs” racing through your mind?

For me it has to be something robust – both in depth of flavour and with a high ABV. Something cask strength. Preferably a “single” cask (terrible pun; my sense of humour has really dried up).

A whisky that has plenty of character and isn’t too delicate – as the mind races in a thousand different directions thinking about the breakup, you want to enjoy the whisky without thinking about it too much. A whisky that doesn’t demand too much attention, yet with enough complexity so that you can take your mind off everything and just focus on the dram in front of you, if you so choose.

So I settled on the North Star Ardmore 8 Year Old 2008 Single Cask, which ticks all of those boxes perfectly.

Colour: Rich toffee.

Nose: Black jelly beans; a sniff of camp fire charcoal when you wake up the next morning and stick your head out of the tent.

Palate: Salty seaweed, char-grilled maple bacon, tart blueberries and sweet smoke.

Finish: Savoury and salty, soft smokey notes too. Like some caramelised onions cooked on a BBQ.

Comments: There’s no such thing as the perfect relationship, just as there’s no such thing as the perfect whisky. We shouldn’t be blinded by an endless search for perfection when there may be something amazing sitting right in front of you.

The North Star Ardmore 8 Year Old 2008 Single Cask isn’t the perfect whisky, but it’s pretty bloody amazing.

Whiskies #382-387: Scotch Malt Whisky Society Winter Tasting

August 13, 2015 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by Whiskies #382-387: Scotch Malt Whisky Society Winter Tasting. Royal Automobile Club, Sydney. $85.

Since Whisky a Day only recently located from Perth to Sydney a month ago, the first SMWS tasting event was locked into the calendar. Excellently hosted by the SMWS Australian Cellar Master Andrew Derbidge, last night’s tasting was an overview of six of the Society’s latest releases.

Whisky #382: 64.54 Sweet and Tart, Subtle and Delicate. 10 year old bottling from Mannochmore Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 56.3%.

Colour: Pale straw.
Nose: Pine needles, wood chips, and sherbet.
Palate: Tangy lemon, peppery spice, with some cheesecake flavours to round off.
Finish: White pepper with a long, salty tingle and generous warmth around the mouth. Like the sensation of sucking the lemon after you’ve just downed a shot of good tequila. The oily warmth lingers longer than the flavours, but in a comforting way.

Whisky #383: 35.133 Mediterranean Maharaja goes Americana. 20 year old bottling from Glen Moray Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 55.8%.

Colour: Rich honey.
Nose: It’s a very bourbon-ish nose which hits you immediately. Fennel and spiced mead; sweet oaky notes with some time in the glass.
Palate: Spiced honey, cocoa, sultanas and spiced fruit toast.
Finish: Quite a short, drying finish with some savoury biscuit notes.

Whisky #384: 46.25 Soft, Elegant and Intensely Creamy. 21 year old bottling from Glenlossie Distillery. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 46.4%.

Colour: Pale apple juice.
Nose: Fresh apples in a wet hessian sack. Ok, so I got fresh apples and I separately got some wet hessian notes, but seeing as the tasting was being conducted in the Royal Automobile Club where anoraks abound, I thought I’d better combine the two descriptors and really turn the wankiness up to 11. My eminent whisky tasting neighbour Dave picked up notes like walking past a makeup counter through a department store.
Palate: Baked pears, some sweet caramelised flavours too. A cool, creamy mouthfeel; reminds me of fruit salad atop a freshly baked pavlova.
Finish: Passionfruit syrup and vanilla ice-cream. Very light and delicate.
Comments: This was my favourite whisky if the night. Quite a low ABV for a cask strength bottling, but it’s just so easy to drink and keeps begging you back for more. So much so that I ordered a bottle so I could do precisely that.

Whisky #385: 119.14 Raspberry Imperial Stout. 11 year old bottling from Yamazaki Distillery. Japan. ABV: 53.9%.

Colour: Wow. Deep rich toffee. I started enjoying this one long before I picked up the glass.
Nose: It’s a huge sherry bomb, simply divine. It reminds me a lot of the nose you get from some Glendronach malts, particularly the Glendronach Allardice 18 year old and Glendronach 21 year old. Though it’s more intense and syrupy than you’ll find say on the Glendronach 15 year old.
Palate: Syrupy Christmas cake spice, oily mouthfeel. Yes that sounds quite stereotypical for a malt matured in ex sherry casks, but boy is this a fine example of the style. An amazing drop. Some dark chocolate and cherry notes come through too.
Finish: Paradoxically for a syrupy whisky, the finish is quite drying. Huge legs on the glass.
Comments: In a blind tasting, I would have picked this to be a Speyside malt as it is a fine example of the sherried malts so often produced from that region. Yamazaki have done brilliant work with this one.

Whisky #386: 66.66 Ginger Makes Fred Smile. 10 year old bottling from Ardmore Distillery. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 61.9%.

Colour: Pale translucent copper; almost a rosey tinge.
Nose: Flame grilled steak, salted caramel and smoked salmon.
Palate: Smoked ham hock and beef jerky. It’s smokey with a hint of fruity sweetness; reminds me of a slice of juicy pineapple on the BBQ.
Finish: Super long and sumptuous.
Comments: Matured in a first fill white wine hogshead, which is both quite unusual but also an amazing choice for this malt. I enjoyed it so much I ordered a bottle on the spot.

Whisky #387: 3.234 Scallops Cooked on a Puffer Shovel. 16 year old bottling from Bowmore Distillery. Islay, Scotland. ABV: 57.5%.

Colour: Pure gold.
Nose: Caramel popcorn is the first thing that hits. Orange chocolate and soft straw notes too – like a handful of straw thrown on a campfire.
Palate: Salty blackcurrant pastilles and caramelised bacon. Hmmm, bacon… *drool*.
Finish: A building meaty saltiness with a very long, mouthwatering finish.
Comments: An Islay malt from Bowmore that has been perfectly matched to a refill sherry butt to produce those delicious caramelised meaty flavours. Though I think the nose is the winner here, simply divine. Some would say that there’s lots of smoke here both on the nose and on the palate, and they’d be 100% right…for me the smoke is there in droves, but it somehow takes a back seat to the amazing array of other flavours and aromas that are layered here.

Whisky #15: Cadhenhead’s Authentic Collection Ardmore 14 yr Cask Strength Single Malt

February 19, 2014 by Whisky a Day Leave a Comment

by Cadhenhead’s Authentic Collection Ardmore 14 yr Cask Strength Single Malt. Highlands, Scotland. ABV: 55.8%. Tasted at The Royal, $17.

Colour: Very light, pale straw colour. Like a Chinese Olympic swimmer’s diluted post-race “sample”.

Nose: Thankfully it doesn’t smell of chlorine, human growth hormone or urine. Very peaty, also fruity floral notes.

Palate: Warm spice. The long lost 6th member of the Spice Girls. Some sweetness too, maybe some walnut or almond flavours? Hard for me to pinpoint.

Finish: Sweet smooth finish, gentle warming of the mouth.

Comments: A Cadhenhead’s independent bottling from the Ardmore distillery. It’s like it’s trying to be an Islay, particularly with such a strong peaty aroma, but it’s much smoother and sweet at the end. I like it. I’m also starting to appreciate what a great little whisky selection they’ve got at The Royal, which is rather handy as it’s my local. It will be great for those nights when I can’t be arsed heading out elsewhere after a long day and I can walk down to my local and sample some whiskies that I haven’t seen in too many other venues around town.