Ardmore 2009
Style: Single Cask
Cask: #709322
Year of distillation: 2009
Bottled: 2022
Age: 13
Region: Highland
Cask Type: Ex-Islay Barrel
No. of bottles: 222
ABV: 55.3%
Release: Summer 2022
Rob Whitehead
“Icing sugar and peat smoke make unlikely bedfellows, but both sing to me on the nose of this impeccable Ardmore. Taut and muscular on the palate, with no surfeit of wood sweetness, I’m thrilled to find modest peatiness draped here on a petite but perfectly proportioned frame. This is one for those times when tangy smoke is called for, but circumspection is distinctly advantageous.”
Tasting Notes
This Highland whisky’s aroma is an earthy mix of smoked haddock, hessian, wet sand and gravel. The palate is complex; opening with coffee, dark chocolate before the expected smoked barley, cullen skink and peat smoke come through. A lingering finish offers more smoke and earth as the mouth-coating distillate slowly ebbs away. Few distilleries have a character as uniquely recognisable as Ardmore.
Distillery
Ardmore, located near Kennethmont in Aberdeenshire, was founded in 1898 and produces quite a peaty style by Highland standards. One of the last distilleries to move away from direct coal, this cask is one of their rare unpeated examples.
Jonny says: “I love idiosyncratic distillates, whiskies with unique personalities that are easy to pick out amongst the crowd and Ardmore is absolutely one of these gems. I’ve never been sure why Ardmore isn’t a bigger name, but with it’s earthy, dry peaty character I’m exceptionally glad we’re able to source the odd cask.”