Whisky Trail Ardmore 1998 Cask 750789

Tasting Notes

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: licorice candies and clean smoke mingle with orange creamsicles and saltwater toffee; assorted fruit Jelly Bellies, apple strudel, and candied salmon; decadent honey, vanilla cream, and a touch of burning rubber.

Palate: big and round it swirls around the palate with vanilla, smoke, assorted fruits, and maple glazed bacon; the apple strudel is still there but licorice goodies are overpowering it; nutty with more fruit flavorued Jelly Bellies and a trace of tires spinning; late tropical fruits.

Finish: it is all about the fine balance of tropical fruits, ashy smoke, and sweet vanilla.

Comment: this Ardmore is quite simply sublime; I find this distillery can be very hit and miss for my tastes; this one is a home run! 

Producer Tasting Note

Nose: A vanilla ice cream on a windy beach – with flake. Sherbert lemons and freshly-clipped seaside golf courses are joined by beach bonfires.

Palate: Rich, rounded and sweet. Apples and pears roasted over a beach barbecue with candied lemons, sweet peat and savoury woodsmoke.

Finish: Lemons and incense slowly fade to leave sweet vanilla and soft smoke.

Distillery

Originally written by Evan for a blog post relating to KWM's 2020 Whisky Calendar.

Ardmore distillery was founded in 1898 and was purpose-built to provide whisky for Blending, as pretty much all distilleries were at the time. However with Ardmore that hasn’t changed much – even today just about all of Ardmore’s is still being used for blending, trading stock, or selling.

Only a small portion of Ardmore Single Malt Scotch lands in official bottles released by Ardmore and its parent company Beam Suntory. When it comes to profile and releases, Bowmore and Laphroaig get plenty of attention, being the Islay darlings that they are. Auchentoshan in the Lowlands gets similar treatment. Even Glen Garioch gets more releases, and that is saying something!

One of the reasons Ardmore is the heart of Teacher’s Highland Cream and also sought after by independent bottlers is that just about all of the whisky produced at the distillery is moderately peated. I have only tasted one unpeated Ardmore that I can recall. There is also a lighter peated style that the distillery makes which is sometimes dubbed Ardlair. I suspect some of the Ardmore I have tasted have been this style, which tends to amp up the sweet, creamy and ashy notes of the whisky.