I’ve enjoyed many of the recent Ardmore’s – this month’s is a 12 year old drawn from a refill ex-bourbon barrel. View on SMWS
Nose: Sweet peat influence from ham hock, pan-fried maple bacon and smoked toffee. Supported by a meandering ashiness that feels akin to a long spent forest fire. Farmy yard aromas emphasis haylofts and pie sties – drifting close by to lacticness – milk and yeasty fermentation. In the background, perceptible and developing minerality – slate, chalk and bath salts.
Taste: Green label – green flavours – bracken, ferns, tobacco and leaf mulch. Hay lofts once more – getting close to silage now – certainly fish tanks. The mid-palate offers coal ash and sharp crisp minerality of pebble beaches, whilst bringing some sharp citrus in the form of lemon oils. The addition of water brings out the sweeter side detected on the nose – seafood – not lobster for me, more pan-fried scallop.
Finish: Long with ash, tobacco and plenty of herbal lemon verbena.
Quite typically Ardmore in style with plenty of discernible foresty and farmy details alongside mineral lemon influences. Very solid.