As anyone who even happens across the list of whiskies I've reviewed can tell, I am quite a fan of Ardmore. So when I discovered that the Jack Rose Saloon here in Washington DC had a last splash of 21 year old Ardmore, distilled in the 1980s, I decided to splurge. It was expensive ($30) but perhaps a last chance at seeing what Ardmore was like in former years, as well as try an older expression. I am publishing this on the same day I'm posting my review of a long-discontinued Ardmore Traditional Cask (NAS) bottle I found mummified in dust on a DC liquor store shelf.
This bottle hails from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society ("SMWS") and was distilled in 1985, bottled in 2007, for 21 years and 10 months of maturation in what I assume was an ex-bourbon cask. They didn't quite provide the same amount of information back in 2007, it seems. It's peated, and bottled at 53.9% ABV. Only the 23rd cask of Ardmore ever released by SMWS (they are currently up around ~215), it's nicknamed "Delicious and Yummy."
Here are the official notes, which I managed to unearth on the SMWS website:
This distillery lies in Strath Bogie, not far from Huntly, though it was actually named after a place on the Clyde where the Teachers family had their home. This is an important component in the Teachers blend. This is old gold from a refill hoggie and the nose is a delicious mélange of cooked pork with aromatic apple sauce and parsnip chips. The reduced nose has toffee, violets, damp tobacco and caramelized apple with sesame seeds. The neat taste is yummy; deeply sweet but savory and smoky reminiscent of honeyed pork. With water there is a curious mix of slightly burnt toffee and pea pods. Definitely a dram to stimulate the appetite.
Interesting! Reading the notes AFTER having the dram, I can already tell that I didn't get some of those things. I couldn't find any other reviews of this on the net. Let's dig in:
Nose: Soft peat, mild pear, smoke, apple pie, cigarette smoke, coal, tar. With some time to open up, and a little water, it sweetens into caramel and honey while retaining the industrial notes. What strikes me most is how much this resembles modern Ardmore - soft, funky, industrial, with fruity underpinnings of Speyside-like apple and pear. But after 20+ years, all the edges have been ground down and it's quite soft. Not to mention it was the final pour from the bottle, so some oxidation has occurred too.
I don't get any cooked pork, at all. Perhaps that was lost in the oxidation. I can potentially see the damp tobacco, and - possibly - the violets, although it would be hints of it here and there and nothing dominant. On the other hand, that might just be in my head.
Mouthfeel: Oily, medium.
Palate: Apple, cotton rope (or candle wicks?), soft wax, honey, more peat, smoke, pear flesh, honey, cigarette ash, some alcohol prickle, and - after time and water - a note like melon or cactus/prickly pear (!). The last is a real surprise. The melon/prickly pear note is probably just a permutation of the pear note, but it's quite nice anyway. Again, I don't get the pork note at all. I assume the prickly pear note I'm getting is what they are calling "pea pods."
Finish: Smoke, pear/melon/prickly pear, vague oak.
Verdict: This is very similar to some modern Ardmore bottles I've had, especially a 15 year from Exclusive Malts and - oddly - the official no age statement bottling from 2014 I just had. If you could eliminate all the whisky in the Traditional Cask that was below, say 12 years old, I bet the remainder would be very close to this.
While I tend to find Ardmore to be quite industrial and coastal, with a briny salinity and shellfish-type note, none of the coastal elements are present here; this older expression has been filed down by age and only soft fruit and industrial things remain. The prickly pear/melon note was quite fun and surprising.
It's very nice, and encourages me to explore more older bottlings of Ardmore. A nice glimpse into the '80s version of Ardmore, which shows a lot of consistency of approach with the current bottlings.
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