The last time I visited Jack Rose, I had another older Ardmore (distilled in 1998 in this case) at the bar, to help round out my Ardmore experiences. This one comes from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), cask 66.31, spent 11 years in a refill sherry butt, and was nicknamed "Apples at Hallowe'en."
Here are the official notes:
I love these old tasting notes - heart-malt! Exhaust-fume! Fire-scorched sage-brush hillside!! Wow, someone had a good way with words.
Let's see my own notes:
Nose: Red fruit (apples, berries, plums, currants, cherries), brown butter, light smoke, machine oil, some baking spice. Overall fairly bright but balanced.
Mouthfeel: Silky, but a bit thin.
Palate: Young leather, strawberry preserves, milk chocolate, cream and coffee, pears and cigarettes, fresh and unused motor oil. Discernably Ardmore, lots of things going on here, but also quite strong sherry influence (as you'd expect).
Finish: Caramel, blueberries, heavier smoke, oak, apples, candle wax (!). A surprisingly long and lovely finish - the star of the show, easily. The wax note that takes over as the last note is very charming.
Verdict: Ardmore was really firing on all cylinders in the late 1990s, and this is yet another demonstration. The SMWS really had the market cornered with these early bottles, I feel - they must have purchased a ton of those great casks! Although I'm not sure why the Halloween angle is promoted here (I guess it dropped right before then?), if you spot this in the wild, give it a shot.
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