After May’s older Ardmore (66.143 Steam trains and puffers), we’re back at the younger end of the spectrum with a 12 year old drawn from a refill ex-bourbon barrel. View on SMWS
Nose: Sudocream ointment, burnt pine needles, and smouldering mosses are joined by fallen leaves, reeds, flax and bamboo. All very green and verdant. Leather hides and waxed jackets sit with cooked ham whilst gentle touches of shingle provide some sharp minerals in to the equation. The addition of water expresses laundry and cloth alongside white chocolate and nettles.
Taste: Sweet peat with forest influences. Lemon sponge cake and whipped cream with fir cones, pine, twigs and leaves whilst forest fires and camphor are joined by tarred ropes. The development heads more herbal with spearmint and moist grasses before ending with damp soils. Dilution adds lemon curd pie, limestone minerality and mentholated oak.
Finish: Medium, medicinal (bandages and wipes) with fading forest fires, tress sap and resin.
Excellent, evocative in-land peat from this exceedingly well-balanced Ardmore. Thoughtful, flavourful, deep and above all tasty. Joint pick of the month.