Cooper's Choice Ardmore 2003

Tasting Notes

Producer Tasting Note

Nose: Dry peatsmoke with lemon notes and honey. 

Palate: More gentle smoke with vanilla and ginger. 

Finish: The smoke fade while the lemony notes remain.

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.

Independent Bottler

The Vintage Malt Whisky Co. is an Independent Bottler, that owns the Cooper's Choice, Finlaggan & Ileach brands, to name just a few. We have always been impressed with not only the quality of liquid from the Vintage Malt Whisky Co., but also the value their brands offer. Their price to age and quality ration is almost second to none. The Ileach Cask Strength has been our best selling Islay whisky for nearly a decade! 

Producer Self Description Follows

Vintage Malt was founded in 1992 by Brian Crook, after many years in the whisky industry as Export Director for one of Scotland’s best known distillers. His aim was to produce a range of malt whiskies from his country’s finest distilleries and make them available to independent wine and spirit importers throughout the world.

Brian’s approach proved so popular with customers that, 25 years on, the company has exported more than 10 million bottles of malt whisky to more than 30 countries across the world, and is now recognised as one of Scotland’s leading independent bottlers.

The brands owned by Highlands & Islands Scotch Whisky Co joined the group in 1997, and in 2005 the company acquired CS James & Sons, producers of Islay Storm.

The group’s award winning brands include Finlaggan, The Ileach, and Islay Storm, all  single malts from the island of Islay on the west coast of Scotland and The Cooper’s Choice, a superb range of single cask bottlings.