Tastes

Nose: Dates, raisins, orchard fruit, chocolate, mocha, vanilla. Light fragrant spices Palate: Treacle, fig rolls, ginger, dried fruit, dates, dried fig, ginger. There's a note of oaky Malbec wine underneath the darker notes. Finish: Medium short finish. Dark cherries, dried fruit, flower honey, vanilla, leather. Quite a dry tannic aftertaste. This is a luxurious, intense whisky. Chocolate, dried fruit and a kick of oak. Great dram! £62.95 for a 500ml bottle.

Nose: Frazzles crisps, BBQ pork, toffee, damp peat, white pepper Palate: Bacon, damp peat, black pepper, dusty, black tea, light orchard/stone fruit, light summer berries Finish: Long finish. More of the damp peat, leather, cocoa and a light saltiness This changes through the layers as you sip - berries, chocolate, leather and pepper, all with the peaty backbone. There's loads going on in this dram. Interesting, layered and tasty. A good dram overall.

Nose: Burnt sugar, Crêpes Suzette, oranges. There's a rather artificial note on the nose. Palate: Baking spice, caramel, butter, vanilla, sweet sherry, kirsch Finish: Medium long finish. Light smoke, summer berries, cherries and chocolate. 1 of 5,252 bottles This is a juicy dram that has lots of berries and cherries with a chocolatey finish. Unfortunately, it does taste a little one dimensional and cheap. It's a decent enough dram.

Nose: Chocolate, cherries, orange peel, orchard fruit Palate: Vanilla, summer berries, fig jam, dark chocolate cherries. Quite a 'hot' dram. Finish: Short finish. Ginger, baking spices, leather and wood. This is a session dram. Chocolatey and pretty tasty, but quite hot on the palate. Easy to drink but just a little too hot to be a regular quaffing whisky. Easy drinking, 'though.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Ardnamurchan & Adelphi Tasting, 01 April 2022. Hosted by GSC, and presented by Graeme Mackay and Connal MacKenzie from Adelphi). Nose: Barley sugar, forest fruit, strawberries and cream. Very light on the nose. Palate: Raisins, currants, icing sugar, lemon cheesecake, honey sweet, orange. Finish: Medium short finish. Light sherry, buttery, chocolate orange. There are hints of leather and liquorice on the aftertaste. You get some of the funky distillery character, with a load of light, icing sugar sweet spirit. A great wee dram! 1 of 348 bottles 5 unpeated sherry octaves, married into one hogshead. One octave each was picked by a team from Ardnamurchan distillery as part of a fundraising exercise. In May 2021, the five walked from Fife to the distillery, raising funds for the Ben which is the Scottish Licensed Trade Benevolent Society. One brought from the Adelphi archives for the tasting, so no longer available for sale (unless you can find it on the secondary market). Came first out of the six drams, with 35% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 91% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky. This got my vote for favourite of the tasting.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Ardnamurchan & Adelphi Tasting, 01 April 2022. Hosted by GSC, and presented by Graeme Mackay and Connal MacKenzie from Adelphi). Nose: Savoury, salty, light peat, sweet honey Palate: Sweet peat, light smoke, oily, fennel/aniseed, hay/floral. You do get a little medicinal/Fisherman's Friend funkiness. Finish: Medium short finish. Black tea, salt saline, sweet smoke. Very gentle peat on the aftertaste along with white pepper and touches of apple and pear. Peated to 30ppm 95% peated ex-bourbon barrels from 2015 5 casks of unpeated from 2015 2 hogsheads of Oloroso from 2016 2 hogsheads of PX from 2013 This is a nice gently peaty dram. There's a gentleness of the spirit despite it being a cask strength. This is what I would consider an entry level peated dram. Easy to drink and enjoy. Shows the character of the spirit - it's not all about the casks. Came joint third out of the six drams, with 15% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 91% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Ardnamurchan & Adelphi Tasting, 01 April 2022. Hosted by GSC, and presented by Graeme Mackay and Connal MacKenzie from Adelphi). Nose: Cider vinegar, pig pen, cow dung, pickled gherkins, chip shop onions, damp dog. Basically, it smells like pickled pig shit! Palate: Wet peat, sweet, caramel, vanilla, light stone fruit Finish: Short finish. Light peat smoke, char, hints of fruit, salty and quite sour on the aftertaste. 1 of 253 bottles Cask No: 672 Ex-Glen Moray cask Something went a bit wrong with this barrel, so they couldn't use it in any batch. But, they realised that it still tasted pretty good and wanted to share it, so they recognised it for what it was - bizarre - and bottled it anyway. I like that ethos! This is f*cking weird! On the nose it smells - genuinely - like pig shit. There's a sourness throughout the taste, which links it back to the 'gherkin' branding. It's bizarre, it tastes much (much!) better than it smells - thank god!. Fun. Weird, but fun. This is, without any doubt, one of the weirdest whiskies I have ever tried. It smells, well, like shit! But it tastes great. It wasn't my favourite of the tasting but it is the one I most wanted to buy. There's a perverse pleasure in having such a challenging whisky to share with friends - "try this! it smells shitty, but tastes great!". Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in the ballot, but I will be keeping an eye open for it - just in case! The tasting note of the evening came from someone with the screen name 'Vineet': "Smells like Scottish tablet that fell in the shitter!". Pretty accurate. Came joint fourth out of the six drams, with 9% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 72% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Ardnamurchan & Adelphi Tasting, 01 April 2022. Hosted by GSC, and presented by Graeme Mackay and Connal MacKenzie from Adelphi). Nose: Very sweet. Hairspray, children's sweets (fruit salad, apple sours & pear drops), orange peel Palate: Salted caramel, lemon, tropical fruit, black tea, white pepper, very sherried. Lightly spicy (allspice), coconut Finish: Medium short finish. Slightly sour, currants, dried fruit, dry baking spices, a little leather. Tannic on the aftertaste. 1st fill Oloroso sherry cask for the full maturation Cask: 709000 Intense cask influence. Quite well balanced in the sherry although a little 'hot' upfront on the palate. Lots of dried fruit and light spices. A decent wee dram. One brought from the Adelphi archives for the tasting, so no longer available for sale (unless you can find it on the secondary market). Came joint fourth out of the six drams, with 9% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 89% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky.

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Ardnamurchan & Adelphi Tasting, 01 April 2022. Hosted by GSC, and presented by Graeme Mackay and Connal MacKenzie from Adelphi). Nose: Floral, hay, charred, wood shavings, lemon cheesecake, furniture polish, light wet peat Palate: Woody, lemon/citrus sweets, hay, damp peat, BBQ smoke, sweet, cherries and cocoa notes Finish: Medium short finish. Souring on the finish. Peat, chocolate cherries, and wood. This is a blend of 2x 1st fill bourbon barrels of peated High Coast whisky from Sweeden and 2x unpeated sherry hogsheads of Ardnamurchan distilled in 2015. Blended at St. George's Distillery in Norfolk, England (teaspooned). Smoke and wood, cherries and chocolate. The lemon sweeties and chocolate cherries come first, then a nice hit of the damp BBQ smoke and peat. Meaning, the peat comes through very much as a secondary note - unusual. Lovely dram! Came second out of the six drams, with 17% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 74% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky

(Good Spirits Co. Glasgow – Virtual Ardnamurchan & Adelphi Tasting, 01 April 2022. Hosted by GSC, and presented by Graeme Mackay and Connal MacKenzie from Adelphi). Nose: Ginger, orchard fruit, vanilla, orange zest Palate: Ginger, woody, orange zest, coconut, vanilla, cocoa, more orchard fruit Finish: Long finish. Ginger & lemon, with a very dark leather, liquorice and ash note on the finish. Lots of woodiness on the aftertaste. Refill bourbon hogshead. This is a zesty and gingery fresh tasting dram with loads of orchard fruit despite it's 25 years resting. Fresh up-front with a darker liquorice finish. Lovely! Came joint third out of the six drams, with 15% of the final vote for favourite of the night. 87% of those present said they enjoyed the whisky.