Ardmore 13 Year (SMWS 66.202 "Sneaky Peat")

 

Delicious, delicious Ardmore. How I love thee. This is a limited single cask from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") who must have a very healthy relationship with Ardmore because they release a ton of it. Ardmore, as I have noted many a time, has a very unusual spirit profile: it's soft, delicate, industrial/metallic, fruity, smoky, salty. A very interesting Highland style. 

Here are the official notes: 

Plenty of smoke in this expression with smoked ham, smoked trout, chimney smoke and sweet peat leaping from the glass. But also some briny and mineralic maritime notes and mentholic medicinal notes, not to mention sweet aromas of brown sugar, apple and brown sauce. 

On the neat palate, the smoky element appears as bonfire, smoked salmon, smoked trout, burnt chestnuts, pig roast; the sweet notes as maple syrup, grilled pears, sweet peas, rose petals and burnt vanilla. One panel detected new 'tennis balls'! At reduced strength, the smokiness reduced to smoked brisket and smoked haddock, the maritime/medicinal notes to Band-Aid and sea breeze. But several panelists detected lemon, lemongrass, honeysuckle and fresh mown grass. One panelist went for 'deviled eggs and caviar'. The taste was sweeter than the nose indicated - toffee, chocolate caramel, apple pancakes with maple syrup, plum juice - but still with traces of smoked ham. Hard to believe you're not in Islay with this sneaky dram!

Most of these seem right on the money for a middle-aged Ardmore, but the one I am most excited about is "brine." My very first Ardmore bottle from the SMWS was 66.165 "Mesmerizing and Entertaining" which was like drinking a softly smoky, fruity oyster brine (!). I'll never forget it - it blew me away and sold me on Ardmore forevermore. 

This is bottled at a healthy 59.7% ABV after 13 years in a first-fill ex-bourbon barrel, and like all SMWS releases no chill filtering, no coloration. Let's see how briny this could be: 

Nose: Ooooooh yes. Smoke, oysters, brine, roast pork, lox (incredibly strong lox scent), and - yes - it's true - tennis balls. That weird chemical fuzz smell they have. I also get a note like a bait shop: salty, earthy, metallic. 

With water: "][[[[[[[6nb666^^XSDs" says my cat. I, on the other hand, get tons of iodine and salt, far more than the neat nose. 

Mouthfeel: Medium, creamy. 

Palate: Ooooh again. Follows the nose but adds pear, apple, hints of peanut brittle, burnt toffee, chocolate, smoked fish, plum sauce, tar, fish hooks (!). 

With water: Pear, iodine, smoke, fish. It really is VERY Islay-adjacent. 

Finish: Long, surprisingly nutty, smoky, with salmon notes carrying over. 

Verdict: A very briny, salty, Islay-type bottle from Ardmore - heavily heavily peated for sure. Interesting stuff! Not quite as nuanced as I might hope, not quite as fruity, but still a good bracing peated dram for long cold nights alone.