Ardnamurchan ad/07.21 :04

It's not all the time that I have a hankering for peated whisky. But sometimes when the craving hits, everything not peated tastes boring. It's like I develop peat pica and have to rummage through the whisky cabinet or stashed samples for anything smoky, briny, vegetal, tarry, or iodic. In my manic hunt for peat, I may also branch out to new whiskies. I had been curious about this distillery, but had stayed away mostly thinking it was too young and not peaty enough. But after a couple recent endorsements decided to give it a try. Overall, glad I did. On the nose, lemon, honey, fairly light whiff of peat. From the nose, I'm not expecting this to satisfy my craving. On the palate, however, the peat plays a more prominent role. It's not the star of the show, but it's got a speaking role for sure. Pear, honey, lemon custard, candied ginger, and somewhat vegetal and smoky peat. The peat comes across more campfire smoky than briny, but there's a smidge of salt in there too. I wouldn't have guessed it's only 5-6 years old, but will say that compared to Kilkerran 12, (which seems to have about a similar level of peatedness), the Ard comes across as somewhat less refined. Maybe an unfair comparison, but the last bottle of Kilkerran I bought I only paid about $10 more for. Of course, prices for whisky have gone up across the board, and the Kilkerran now seems to be $90+, so $59 for this seems now like a fair value. In fact, I liked it enough that I bought the cask strength bottling, which I've yet to try, but from what I gather it's got more peat and nearly 60% ABV. Gotta keep that peat pica satisfied. Cheers!

TBH, I had this right after a jamacain rum which may have ruined my taste buds. Nose: Peat, melon (cantaloupe?), candied something (bacon maybe?), and VANILLA Palette: Sweet peat. Honey & minor spice. Vanilla & a dash of salt. Finish: Sweet honey notes linger. And the peat. Overall, it’s a little thin to me & isn’t overly complex. It reminds me a bit of a Lagavulin (in a good way).

Very smooth with just a bit of peat. Easy drinking.

Since no one has reviewed this yet, I wrote up something substantial to give people an idea of what to expect.  Nose Vanilla/creme brulee, lavender/heather, and dark honey.  Almost like a Speyside, but with more depth and spicy bite on the back-end.  Palate The spice becomes more-noticeable and is followed by vanilla cream soda, butterscotch, honey, and a little salt.  The salt and spice keep the taste from being as sweet as it may sound.  This whisky is slightly peated, which brings out a mild smokiness that blends in well into the background.  There's an earthiness to it that I find appealing. Finish Spice comes back on the finish, resulting in a spice-to-honey/lavender-back-to-spice progression from the initial palate to the finish.  Smoke shows up more on the finish, but it's like barrel char more than a peat fire. Overall I looked into the details of this whisky (helpfully provided by a QR code on the bottle) and saw that it's made of a vatting of 5- and 6- year barrels.  That explains some of the obvious spiciness and relatively narrow range of flavors, but, like with Kilchoman's whiskies, careful distilling and barrel management overcome the youth quite a bit.  Knowing that this is a young distillery that's making an effort to be sustainable and a good member of its community made me buy the bottle to support them, but also gave me modest expectations.  I was impressed, though.  The whisky has an uncommon character and I appreciate that, for a young distillery, they didn't lean hard on peat or sherry to make up for the lack of maturation.  At $55 a bottle, I think this is a reasonable value, given how much personality it has.  If Ardnamurchan can maintain this quality, they'll be giving the big boys a run for their money in 6-7 years.