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

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Ardmore

Distillery description Tasting notes

The distillery

For information about the distillery, please click on the photo.

The whisky

A propos des notes de dégustation Your own tasting notes

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Ardmore: Official bottlings

Ardmore
Traditional Cask

Age
 No age statement
Alcohol percentage
 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.

Comment by Johannes Sauer

App.: Amber (colouring added)
Nose: A very malty nose seems to announce a promising dram: Whalenuts and orange peel are the first impression. Later there are raisins and soft floral notes combined with lingering smoke. Porridge with marmalade. Everything here is backed by firm, round and gripping malt.
Taste: The smoke steps more in the foreground, peat is very harmoniouisly blended with oakwood and malt. The fruity impression is nearly lost on the palate but gives place to soft, bitter cocoa powder. The 46% are always very discretly hidden in the back and not at all intruding.
Finish: This is the only soft disapointment after a very good start on nose and mouth: Rather short but soft, bitter and dry.
Conc.: This seems to be a very good companion stay with for a long ! and gregarious night.
17/20

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 Ardmore: independent bottlings
 

Ardmore
1990
Signatory's Un-Chill filtered Collection
Age
 11 years
Alcohol percentage
 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 percentage
 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 percentage
 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 percentage
 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.

Very nice floral nose with clear menthol and pepper notes. A hint of peat. Very fresh nose with nice spicy fragrances.
In the palate, the same acid freshness dominates first and then the mouth develops slowly on fruity notes while keeping this acid touches and a clear presence of alcohol.
The finish is lingering and fresh, with a nice memory of green apple.
18/20
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Ardmore
Gordon & MacPhail
Reserve 1991

Age
 12 years
Alcohol percentage
 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 percentage
 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 percentage
 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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Ardmore: samples

Ardmore
Gordon & MacPhail
Reserve 1993
cask 5746

Alcohol percentage
 54,7%
Bottler
 Gordon & MacPhail
=25 euros=25 euros
Nice nose with fresh fruity notes, green apple with a hint of smoke. Nice complexity to come...
The first mouth is fresh, with minty notes added to the fruit which was already present at the nose. A kind of metallic acidity, far from being unpleasant comes after a while. Interesting palate, even if the nose was did make expect some more of it...
The finish is of medium length and this kind of not easy to describe metallic acidity seems to dominate.
17/20
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Ardmoe: not in collection

Ardmore
Authentic Collection
11 Years old matured in an oak cask
Age
 11 years
Alcohol percentage
 57,1%
Bottler
 Cadenhead
=25 euros=25 euros=25 euros< 25 euros

Comment by Johannes Sauer

Colour: Golden, brite straw, with green glimmers.
Nose: Very gentle, yet expressive and very round: Dried fruits, figs and dates combined with wet hay (a very surprising and delicate note of farmyard or cowbarn) backed by a clearly definded whiff of smoke (air dried bacon).
Taste: Very warm, full and malty and again this very pleasureful smoke stands in the back. Not as complex as the nose (pity, the farmyards missing) but lets try a good shot of water: Here now the soft malty notes dominate: milk chocolate, mints, marzipan, fresh buttered toast and here again this farmyard notes back. With more water added theres again more complexity.
Finish: Good and long, the oakwood sending soft waves of smoke and bitter herbs again and again.
Conc.: A very fine highlander s! tands tall. Beautifully crafted and balanced, goes perfectly with dark chocolate or tobacco.
Date: Feb/06/2008
Price in Germany: ca 55,00 Euro
18/20

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