Scotland, Speyside: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making, production and tasting notes

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Ardmore

Description of the whisky

The distillery

Ardmore Distillery
Kennethmout, Huntly
Aberdeenshire AB54 4NH
+44 1464 831 213
Owner:Fortune Brands (2006: Beam Global Spirits & Wine )
Creation date: 1898

Photos

The distillery has been founded by William Teacher in 1897.
The distillery remained property of the same owner throughout its history, but the William Teachers & Sons company has been absorbed by Allied Distillers, subsidiary of Allied Domecq.
The Ardmore distillery still heats its onion shaped stills with coal, which is exceptional nowadays. It's classic and well balanced single malt is rather sweet and full of taste. Very close to cereal, the whisky has a very interesting floral and fruity complexity. Ardmore's single malt is used in lots of blends, especially the Teacher's Highland Cream.
The Ardmore distillery is one of the biggest and most modern distilleries of Scotland, and produces about 3.000.000 litres a year.
Ardmore used to produce its own malt until the 1970's. Currently, the distillery buys its malt at specialised plants. The distillery stocks about 1000 tons of malted barley, and the mash tun, 25 feet in diameter, can brew 12 tons of malt at the time.
The distillery has its own cooperage.
The 8 stills have a capacity of 15.000 litres each.
The distillery is settled on the east border of the Speyside area, between the River Bogie, the Clashindarroch forest and the Grampian mounts.
Ardmore enters in the composition of Teachers blend.

The whisky

A propos des notes de dégustation Your own tasting notes

List of the bottles

Description of the distillery

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Ardmore: Official bottlings

Ardmore
Traditional Cask

Age
 No age statement
Alcohol
 46°
Particularity
 Non chill filtered
Bottler
 Official
Cask
 Quarter Cask
=25 euros
Ardmore Traditional Cask
Quite a dry nose marked by peat and some fruity hints on the background, which nicely tempers the impression of austerity left by the first nose. As the aeration goes along, the fruity side of this whisky gets more importance.
In the mouth a nice taste too, both fresh (fruits) and dry (peat) with this pleasant mix of dry bitterness and fresh acidity. Not really complex, but interesting by the diversity of tastes, even if they remain on a limited palette.
At the finish, fruit seems to overcome. Quite a nice finish, not very long but very pleasant.
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 Ardmore: independent bottlings
 

Ardmore
1990
Signatory's Un-Chill filtered Collection
Age
 11 years
Alcohol
 46°
Particularity
 Non chill filtered
Bottler
 Signatory
Cask
 Bourbon barrel
=25 euros=25 euros
 Ardmore
The colour is yellow (straw), the nose well balanced, sweet and perfumed is marked by fruity, malted and vegetal hints.
The palate is rich and oily and confirms the touches detected by the nose, but there are some new floral and citrus fruit (orange) hints.
The long and elegant finish is fruity and mentholated.

(La Maison du Whisky)

The single malts of the Ardmore distillery are not very easy to find, as the main part of the production is used in blends. However, some independent bottles like Signatory market sometimes Ardmore bottlings. The Signatory's Unchill-filtered collection is one of my favourites. The quality of Ardmore is excellent, and not being chill filtered allows the whisky to exhale lots of fragrances. An excellent bottle in an excellent collection.

The second tasting of this single malt revealed all the complexity of the fragrances and the tastes, accentuated by the non chill filtration. A slight acidity behind some characteristic malt hints and a very nice finish, whit a slightly acid character, make form this bottle an excellent bottle. ..

The very complex nose is marked by spices and ripe fruits. In the mouth a real explosion of flavours, going from malt to citrus fruits through spices. A real fragrances festival. An exceptional finish, lingering and spicy, but rather fresh. An exceptional bottle.
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Ardmore
1992
Signatory's Un-Chill filtered Collection
Age
 12 years
Alcohol
 46°
Particularity
 Non chill filtered
Bottler
 Signatory
Cask
 Bourbon barrel
=25 euros=25 euros
Ardmore 1992

Color: straw yellow
Nose: balanced, smooth and fragrant, it is marked by ripe fruit (apple, pear, peach) notes and by smoked malted barley. As it goes along, it expresses a vegetal character (fresh grass)
Palate: richt and
BOUCHE : riche et smoth, the same flavours the nose detected are reproduced in the mouth. Some flowers too (currant bushin bloom) and citrus fruit (orange, lemon),
Finish: lingering and elegant, it developes on ripe fruit (pear), candied citrus (lemon) and spices (peppermint).
(La Maison du Whisky)

The nose evokes green apple, some spices on a smoky background. A great freshness, somewhere between cut grass and mint appears furtively, before making room for a touch of liquorice. A very nice nose anyway. In the palate, the first impression is dry peat, developing quickly on fruity hints, with however an impression of bitterness and acidity remaining in the mouth. The finish is lingering and continues on the mouth style, between smoothness of malt, bitterness of walnut and acidity of citrus fruits.

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Ardmore
Vintage 1977

Age
 27 years
Alcohol
 43°
Particularity
 Matured in sherry butts
Bottler
 Signatory
=25 euros=25 euros< 25 euros
Ardmore Vintage 1977
A very interesting nose where fruits (bananas?) on a fresh cut grass field compete with slightly peated and slightly smoky touches. In the palate, some sweet and malty notes, very pleasant and warm, however without a great complexity. But those nice notes do not need fireworks to please the papilla's. The finish is very nice to, recalling some oily peat and maybe a remote hint of chocolate (?)

A clear fruity and very fresh nose. A touch of malt and citrus fruit. Green apple and a discrete hint of exotic fruit. A very nice mouth, fruity and slightly acid, like acid drop. Very light nutty hints, cashew nuts, very smooth. The finish is slightly bitter, not too long with a discrete touch op peat.

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Ardmore
Scott's selection1977
Sherry Wood

Age
 26 years
Alcohol
 58,1°
Particularity
 Matured in sherry butts
Bottler
 Scott's Selection
=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros< 25 euros
Ardmore 1977 Scott's selection
Colour: white wine. Nose: rather more expressive right at first nosing, with quite some peat smoke again (but it’s more subdued here, I guess Arsmore increased its peat level at the turn of the 90’s), some very nice mineral notes again but, mostly, much more fruits (peaches and melons) and waxy notes. Beehive, mastic, tar, fresh crushed almonds… Gets also a little resinous, with whiffs of fresh oak, vanilla, maybe fern… And always a superb smoke (rather white wood smoke). Excellent. Mouth: really powerful but superbly balanced, with a very waxy and resinous attack. There is some peat but it’s not too prominent here. Again, there’s quite some salt that sort of underlines the notes of mastic, marzipan, olive oil, propolis, cough candies… Very interesting! Notes of burnt herbs, tequila (nice with salt), maybe Chartreuse… A very unusual profile, not unlike, yes, a peated tequila + some salt. The finish is rather long, waxy and salty… Again, very interesting and… good! 87 points.
(Serge Valentin)
The nose is very pleasant, even if it is first rather discrete but enhances quickly. A light smell of smoke, peat and bee wax. Some fruit as well. In the palate, some liquorice hints on a peaty background.A general salty but very pleasant impression. A nice lingering finish prolongs the mouth.
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Ardmore
Gordon & MacPhail
Reserve 1991

Age
 12 years
Alcohol
 55,2°
Bottler
 Gordon & MacPhail
=25 euros=25 euros< 25 euros
Ardmore Reserve 1991
The nose is clearly on citrus fruits, and more precisely on orange skin. Pleasant, sweet and slightly acid. The mouth is fresh too, with citrus hints and a veil of smoke. Just a veil, not like other versions of this distillery which make ist sometimes difficult to make the difference with an Islay malt. Just a light veil behind the citrus hints. The taste is not so easy to describe, but it tastes a bit like chocolate. The finish is lingering, and perfectly in the mood of the mouth, with this orange chocolate character.

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Ardmore
1990
Whisky Magazine

Age
 16 years
Alcohol
 60,2°
Bottler
 Signatory, for Whisky Magazine (France)
=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros< 25 euros
Ardmore 1990 Whisky magazine
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Ardmore
The Single Malts of Scotland

Age
 12 years
Alcohol
 46°
Bottler
 The Whisky Exchange
=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros
Ardmore 12 single malts of Scotland
The nose is clearly marked by the freshness of cut grass with fruity hints (pear). Some marshmallow on the background. In the palate, an pleasant complexity, mixing fruity hints (pear, peach) to honey and a background of malted barley. The finish is marked by honey and is quite long and fresh. After a while, some smoky hints seem to appear. Amazing as no smoke at all was detected by this nose nor by the mouth.
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Speyside

Speyside Map

The Speyside area is situated at the North of the Cairngorm mountain and goes to the Moray firth. It is delimited by two rivers: the Findhorn at the West side and the Deveron on the East side.
The area is named after the river Spey. Most of the distilleries take their water in one of its affluents; the Fiddich, the Livet or the Avon.
About sixty distilleries from Speyside are described on this site.

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Click on the map for a list of the distilleries of the area, on the title for further information
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