Wardhead 1997 & Ardmore 2008 for r/Scotch Reviews

Hi everyone,

Okay, bit of back story first… Last year we managed to get two samples from Hunter Laing (Sherry cask Blair Athol and an Inchgower, both over 20 years old). They were rejected for not being good enough.

I organised two more samples from The Single Cask to be sent to u/scotch_fanatic. Once again, not good enough.

u/t8ke then gets Morrison MacKay on board and they send us 9 samples from casks they have that we could bottle. They are sent out blind and we (the tasting panel) taste them, rate them, etc.

Our favourite being an older single grain, we decided that the best course of action was to bottle the second and third favourites.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t rate anything in the blind tasting super high and I gave both of these 7.5/10. I have lost my notes from the blind tasting but I remember guessing the Ardmore was a Croftengea and the Wardhead as some young Speysider. But blind tastings can be deceiving and stuff changes sometimes when it’s bottled as well as changing as it opens up and you spend more time with it. So let us see what the r/Scotch bottlings offer!

Also, this was a huge load of fun and I have to thank u/t8ke and u/scotch_fanatic for generally being awesome, organising this and including me as a part of it. It has been a privilege and an honour and I can’t wait for more bottlings in the future!

Wardhead 1997 for r/Scotch 54.7%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Fresh nose, younger than its years. Green apple and malt first off, grassy, very clean, milk chocolate, hot chocolate froth and some heather, honey. Creamy with vanilla after a minute. Under ripe orange and green grape appearing. Malted milk biscuits too.

Taste: Really wonderful clean arrival, lovely mouthfeel with oils and malt, then a burst of fresh fruit with green apple and lemon, milk chocolate, heather, some oak and spices, some white pepper, stem ginger, softening again into the finish.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Darker and more malty here, malt biscuits, a little cocoa powder, more oak.

Hogshead #40, bottled at 22yo. The nose and the beginning of the taste here are a lot better than I remember from blind tasting. The mid-palate goes into some average territory with the spices and oak just a little flat. Still, a great release worth picking up. Water made the nose much fresher and fruitier but I found it lost body and depth on the taste.

77/100

 

Ardmore 2008 for r/Scotch 57%

Colour: Straw

Body: Full

Nose: I remember first tasting this blind and then the first taste out of the bottle thinking that this was just another pretty average peated whisky. But the nose keeps opening up more... Creamy, lemon citrus, the malt is there quite gristy giving a complexity and body, an Agave note- maybe kinda Mezcal-like, some ash, a little white grapefruit, maritime notes of cold seafood buffet, lobster and crab flesh with cracked black pepper. The more you dig and pay attention, the more you get.

Taste: Clean arrival, oily, lemon citrus and then BIG peat, lots of intense minerality and rocky seashore notes, licking the inside of old shells, chewy mouthfeel. Great, and again, very different from my blind tasting and first pours.

Finish: Medium length. Not as long as the Wardhead but still plenty going on with salt, peaty malt and the oils coating away. Quite dry too.

Bourbon barrel 702430, bottled 11yo. Love Ardmore and very happy to have a bottle of this. I also have to say that this is supremely drinkable at full strength but doesn’t seem to do well with water.

80/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #813-#814

Whisky Network Reviews #969-#970

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. In this case, I was also a part of selecting these whiskies, so may be even more biased than usual... Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ardmore 1996 BBR & 2002 Hidden Spirits Reviews

Hi everyone,

Do we love Ardmore? Yes, we do.

Why, I hear you ask? Because its good whisky young, its good old. Its peaty and smoky and savoury and buttery and fishy and fruity and everything else you could want from a peaty highlander. Yes, I’m a little biased because I own a barrel of the stuff…

Anywho, these are two expressions that I tried recently, both independent bottlings and both slightly older bottlings. Both pretty expensive but both very good.

What is interesting with the comparison between these two is that the 1996 would have been distilled using direct fired stills, while the 2002 is from steam heated stills (Ardmore converted in 2001).

Ardmore 1996 Berry Bros & Rudd 60.1%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Quite a clean nose, spring onion, caramelised green apple, light smoke wisps, heather, dark chocolate. Darker as it opens up actually with plum sauce and roast duck joining the spring onions. Literally, I could be sitting in a Chinese takeaway waiting for my food!

Water: More savoury and smoky, more green apple.

Taste: Clean arrival, lemon and lime, green apple, that savoury spring onion note again, lovely heather-y spice, burnt heather, a little burnt wood. Great mouthfeel.

Water: Much softer start, green apple, more dry oak and less of the savoury notes. Brighter and fresher.

Finish: More smoke here. Mineral, lemon peel, oily and then dry at the end.

Exclusive for the Old & Rare Show 2018. Love the nose on this, very unique. Preferred it neat.

79/100

 

Ardmore 2002 Hidden Spirits 52.7%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Buttered kippers! Delicious and unique, battered whitebait, fishy to say the least, clean spirit and a little meaty too. Again, Ardmore showing off its insane complexity and unique spirit.

Taste: Clean arrival, soft oils, dry, wood then smoke and peat, salty and malty, builds with plenty of power, a charred BBQ meat note.

Finish: Long length. Amazing here, very oily and viscous, dark malt, some chocolate and ginger.

Bottled 2019 at 17yo. Mid-palate is a tad clean for my tastes, but the nose and finish are stunning. Another awesome whisky from Andrea! Hidden Spirits has, quite rightly, been thrust into the limelight at the moment because Serge of Whiskyfun gave the 26yo Clynelish a huge score but they select some great stuff.

83/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Reviews #801-#802

Whisky Network Reviews #953-#954

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as the Global Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ardmore 2004 66.73 & 1998 66.82 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Picking back up where we left off, I was in Toronto and met up with the awesome people of the Toronto Whisky Society. They proceeded to ply me with a bunch of whiskies, particularly Ledaig.

I think u/Devoz had these two beasts. So, thank you sir.

Ardmore is awesome stuff and we just selected one for one of the r/scotch bottlings. But these two casks I have been very interested in because they are quite unusual. A white wine hogshead and a sherry Gorda. White wine casks are very rarely used for whisky and these SMWS bottlings have been some of the few. The sherry Gordas, on the other hand, have become a little legendary for their huge sulphury and strange flavours.

Ardmore 2004 66.73 SMWS 61.1%

Colour: Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Really cool. Kinda medicinal, bandages, sulphury fruit, white peach, oily machine parts,some dirty vanilla, more smoke coming out now. Great nose.

Taste: Sweet start, white grape, dry oak, really oily, clean medicinal notes, bandages and funk, some fun sulphur playing around.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Goes quite soft here, losing power but still great mouthfeel. Quite a dry finish.

10yo from a White Wine Hogshead. Very interesting, very delicious. A shame about the short finish, really wanted it to be longer and more powerful.

81/100

 

Ardmore 1998 66.82 SMWS 57.5%

Colour: Dark Amber

Body: Full

Nose: A real fruit bomb and not exactly what I was expecting, loads of stewed plum, very sulphurous smoke in a good way, fruit salad, more meaty as it opens up, sour cherry, black cherry. Nice contrast of light and dark.

Taste: Very soft arrival, building this great sweetness, dry oak backed perfectly by fruit salad and fruit pastilles, oily, very little smoke actually, great development of flavour to this.

Finish: Medium length. More sulphurous here, struck match, brimstone and hellfire.

17yo from a Sherry Gorda. So damn good, these Gordas have a sulphurous reputation but this was a bit lighter and fresher than I was expecting.

85/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #784-#785

Whisky Network Review #929-#930

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ardmore 30 1987 Review

Hi everyone,

I had no idea this whisky was coming out until I saw it in Inter. Whisky Frankfurt at the start of December. As it has just come out of Whisky Exchange I thought I’d put up my thoughts.

I’m a big fan of Ardmore. In fact, I have a young barrel of the stuff. The indies are great, the stuff is good quality and they used direct fired stills pre-2002.

There hasn’t been a load of old stuff released and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Ardmore older than 30 years. Even better, this is at a very reasonable price of £250 and comes in the normal tube and bottle. No fancy decanter and wooden box here, no sir!

 

Ardmore 30 1987 47.2%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Delicate echoes of smoke, sooty, oily and a little waxy. Sea salt, reminiscent of Brora, dried apple, dried banana, quite an understated nose. Subtly creamy too. More complex as it opens up with machine oil and garage rags. Awesome.

Taste: Soft and sweet, a little flat for a brief moment then more fruity with red apple, black pepper and ginger, nice old smoke and sea salt, quite coastal like an old Talisker, waxy.

Finish: Medium length. More salty with more of the faded old smoke, slightly floral, some lemon sherbet.

Late 2018 release. Fantastic nose, love the Brora elements. I was hoping for a touch more power to the taste and for the finish to be longer or more complex. Don’t get me wrong, its great but I quite like the raw power of the young versions too.

84/100

Thanks for reading!

Updated Distillery Rankings

Scotch Review #717

Whisky Network Review #854

Network Average: 75.1

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ardmore 2002 Chieftain's Madeira Finish Review (PLUS a blind review video)

Hi everyone,

If you’re a daveswhiskyreviews.com follower, you might have noticed that I’ve started a YouTube channel (Link here) tasting various whiskies in various states of blindness.

This next one was the blindest yet. My mate Tom sent me three samples from bottles he got for Christmas. This was the first and boy did he pick a tough one.

Despite knowing that Ardmore was his favourite, I didn’t think his Fiancée would get a different Ardmore to the one I told her to get for him… (sigh)

Anyway, you can watch me get it embarrassingly wrong HERE.

Ardmore 2002 Chieftain's Madeira Finish 46%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: After tasting it blind for youtube I now get rubber first, burnt rubber, pastry, lemon citrus but there's a definite off note to this getting in the way, herbal, I said Gin in the blind review but actually it’s more like Jenever, juniper, craft rye like spice to it too, turmeric.

Taste: Sweet arrival, lemon citrus, some pastry there too, very fresh then some of that Madeira funk, no rubber, not really much smoke but a little ash maybe, then you get some of that rubber from the nose and spice, some ginger.

Finish: Medium/Long length. A little more smoky here with that strange Madeira funk, little clue as to where the peat has gone though.

Bottled at 15 years old. Very little smoke to this actually, as I got with the blind review. A lot of weird/off notes here for me that really detract from the experience. Which is a shame because Ardmore is great, the spirit just hasn't melded well with the cask. Coming back to it after getting it very wrong on the blind review, I don't feel so bad as its very atypical of the Ardmore style.

69/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #570

Whisky Network Review #675

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ardmore 20 (2017) Review

Hi everyone,

There aren’t that many official Ardmore bottlings really. Traditional was discontinued, replaced with Legacy. And there’s the 12yo Portwood. But no others come to mind.

And then this one came out of nowhere, at a sensible strength and an even more sensible price! I was shocked. So shocked I almost bought one. Especially as Ardmore has become a distillery on my watchlist and that this would have been produced on their direct fired stills as it’s pre-2001.

Anyway, finding myself at Inter. Whisky Frankfurt with a tonne of awesome whiskies ahead, I tried this first thing.

 

Ardmore 20 (2017) 49.3%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Sooty and smoky, oily, Campbeltown-esque, some seaweed, lemon and white grapefruit citrus, waxy vanilla. Soft minerality and some funk after time.

Taste: Sweet start, orange peel, then intense citrus and smoke combo, white grapefruit again, gingerbread and ginger biscuit.

Finish: Long length. More of that white grapefruit and ginger beer.

Matured in Bourbon barrels and Laphroaig quarter casks. A little spicy mid-palate but the white grapefruit is unique, not sure I’ve tasted that in a whisky before. Very nice stuff and a great price for a 20yo, only £60 in some places.

81/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #555

Whisky Network Review #650

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Ardmore 1977-2000 Signatory Dumpy Review

Hi everyone,

Another old and rare whisky from Ardmore. I almost tasted this just to make my friend Tom jealous, because he’s a big fan of Ardmore. As actually, am I. Only this year I started to realise the quality this distillery has to offer. Then I kind of had to rave about it because I bought a barrel of the stuff.

So seeing this at the collector’s stand at a very reasonable price, I thought why not. Let’s see what the old stuff was like. Also these old Sigantory’s from the dumpy bottles have a pretty good reputation.

REMEMBER, Ardmore was direct firing their stills back then, with coal.

 

Ardmore 1977 Signatory Dumpy 58.1%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Different to the modern stuff as so much of the 1970’s stuff is. Not much peat, spicy, floral, a little soap, ginger, white pepper, malt, a little ash, porridge, chalky, quite austere though.

Taste: Intense, great arrival on lemon juice, oily, then classic Ardmorian buttery peat and smoke, hot ash, malt, oak, chalky, porridge, white pepper and great oily white truffle.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Oily, buttery, dry oak, austere, some black pepper. A little fizzy at the very end.

Bottled 2000, at 23yo. With water it loses the nose, and the taste is more fresh fruit with green apple. The white truffle note is very cool and unique, haven’t found that on anything else. The equal of the G&M Talisker I just reviewed.

84/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #536

Whisky Network Review #631

Network Average: 74.5

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?