This is the inaugural bottle released in the American market. Here are the basic stats: Aged somewhere around ~6 years, only 5004 bottles released, 35% ex-sherry casks and 65% ex-bourbon, 50/50 peated/unpeated, non-chill-filtered, uncolored, bottled at 46.8% ABV.
Ardnamurchan is the much-heralded new distillery in the western Highlands, and I was much intrigued by the first bottle I had through the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS"). Thank you to Rob Martin for this one! Let's see how this one comes across...
Nose: Interesting: sweet peat. Vanilla sugars (cake frosting), smoke, linseed oil, leather, and tons of fresh green herbs. After letting it sit a bit, a healthy coasting of rock salt over everything. Weirdly, I also get grape must and olive oil. It's not necessarily the boldest nose - a touch shy - but it unwinds steadily and has many dimensions to explore.
Mouthfeel: Silky, oily.
Palate: Interesting - the nose is funneled down into a series of more concrete, more robust flavors; more peat and salt and pepper and smoke on the tongue than on the nose - a LOT more. Ginger, vinegar, vanilla/caramel, honey, herbs, coal, salt, black pepper, and lots of dry peat and ashy smoke.
Finish: The smoke lingers on the tongue a long time, along with some light oak and pepper. Little or no residual sweetness on the finish.
Verdict: This is similar to the single cask powerhouse that the SMWS released recently, in that it's fundamentally sweet (vanilla and honey galore), but tempered with peat, herbs, smoke, and - in this bottle - a salt-and-pepper quality that balances it all out.
This is a very impressive first showing from Ardnamurchan, and I look forward to tasting more bottles as they ramp up production! A fascinating series of quality flavors here. Well done.
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