Official Bottling, 2024 release | 58.3% ABV

Score: 7/10

**Very Good Indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*A great place to end up*

Where to Start?

Scrolling through the lengthy list of distilleries in Scotland, you might wonder where a new enthusiast should even start, or which producer to get hooked into. Pinpointing where to begin, you quickly find yourself swept up regionality, endless flavour profiles and distinctly different whiskies. Frankly, it’s hard to find such variance in spirits anywhere else in the world.

If you were (or are) like me, you just explore. Supermarkets and the likes of the Bezos online empire offer us cheap deals and fuel curiosity for new bottles, or adding items to that forever growing wish list. As that journey grows and we try more and more each year, we start to carve out experience and define preferences. We follow a flavour avenue that suits our personal palate and tastes: bourbon or sherry casks, peat versus non-peat and sometimes single grain, blends or single malt, we’re never short of options… or opinions.

Yet, as much as we might want to, we can’t try them all. Nor will we all end up fans of the same distilleries. It’s all so personal. Same with glassware, or adding water, ice or a mixer. Like the Whiskey Tribe says; the best whisky is the whisky you like to drink, the way you like to drink it.

While I might love Ardmore, others might not agree. Their experience might only be the supermarket Legacy NAS offering, and they’ve not got around to the wonder of that malt from indies, yet. The same goes for me with something I have yet to get on with. The likes of Old Pulteney 12yo springs to mind, or even Kilkerran 16yo, so far these are drams that really aren’t for me. A little too mineral and salty, perhaps, but clearly loved by many. It’s not that I hate the profile, I just haven’t found the moment for me.

Yet, there’s one interesting distillery in this particular lane that seems to have gathered invested lovers en masse, albeit occasionally sprinkled with a fair few haters too, mind you. Yet even these ‘haters’ still find the odd release that they end up getting on with; just something I’ve personally witnessed these past few years.

I’m speaking, of course, about Ardnamurchan. Who are continuing to attract noise, from more and more enthusiasts and whisky geeks like us, noticing the great things they are doing, and inevitably we’re shouting about it.

Why is that? What’s brought such a spotlight to Ardnamurchan compared to their peers? It matters not whether you are comparing other producers of similar age, profile or scale, it seems there’s always more chatter around Ardnamurchan. I’m struck by this.

Isn’t it interesting that a distillery with such young stock, for now, manages to draw so many fans? I mean, they’ve only just celebrated their 10 years. From what I understand, in the initial couple of years they hadn’t fully formed their strategy, when it came to the specific style of whisky. However, whether due to the whisky defining itself in time, or ever more dialled-in fine tuning of the production, that’s not the case today.

In fact, they’ve recently underlined their position in 2024 by winning the Best Distillery category in the OSWAs. Even when it came to the enter-anything-you-like People’s Choice, they came comfortably in third, only behind eventual leaders Bruichladdich, with Springbank in second. In summary; even after a mere 10 years, things are already quite fantastic, but apparently they’re only going to get better. Bring it on.

I don’t have all of the possible answers to explain the success for Adelphi and Ardnamurchan, but, amongst so many variables, I have a couple of suggestions.

We might begin to focus our lens on the people at the distillery and the front-line team of ambassadors and salesfolk we can meet and get to know through festivals, tastings and their prolific and personable social media posts. This is a vital aspect so overlooked by the giants of Scotch whisky today, don’t you think?

Yes, they’re there to market and sell a specific product; their own, but it’s not all in your face. At festivals they have such a welcoming aura around them, you sense you’re enjoying whisky with like-minded fans and you’re willingly drawn into the Adelphi rabbit hole of scotch magnificence.

Even if you can’t meet them at festivals or tastings, there’s that same warmth to their social media. We can vicariously witness their various escapades at home and abroad, or enjoy incidental musings brought to us by either Jenny, Carl, Callum, Connal, DJ and Graeme (how many other producers are there where you can name their team?). When I think of Ardnamurchan, I think of these people. You don’t often see this level of familiar presence and ‘personality’ from other whisky companies.

But, since we’re not shy about praising Ardnamurchan and their model here, there’s more.

Even in the brilliant backroom teams, the folks we might never see at events or gatherings, Adelphi have found a way for us to uncover who they are.

If you scan the QR code on any Ardnamurchan bottle, you may know you’re given epic transparency about the liquid in your hand: details about barley, fermentation, distillation, casks…everything. But there’s even a look at which of the Adelphi team members bottled your specific expression.

Such a personal touch. Thanks to Kelly, Holly and Reece!

But all of these faces need a compelling story to tell. Luckily, from the very start, ethos and ethics have been at the forefront. When it comes to sustainability as a business and in their whisky production, Ardnamurchan are pioneers. It continues to be a priority in everything they do, and the team there demonstrate this not only with words, but with action. Such as reducing the weight of their bottles, removing all outer packaging, or a more prominent QR code on each and every label to access that detailed transparency. Even to the extreme of looking at crushed barley waste to produce an actual label, as seen today on the Maclean’s Nose.

Sticking with ethics, we might talk about strategy, employment and leadership, or perhaps how they invest in their local community and provide for the future of the peninsula, but instead I’ll encourage you to give this brand new marketing video a watch to see the team in action. It’s pretty succinct and you’ll hear from their MD, Alex Bruce, who we suspect has so much to do with this seemingly magical formula. But let’s be honest; probably the most important aspect to any whisky enthusiast, especially today, is price.

Ardnamurchan has kept it fair throughout their many core releases over these formative years. Their AD/ Core range still sits around £40-45, The Midgie around £54, Cask Strength and special releases (such as their Sherry Cask or Sauternes) £65.

Single casks can vary from £70 to about £100, which is expensive, but these are one-offs; genuine small outturn single casks, and should to be viewed through a similar lens to that of an independent bottler. Those I’ve had from them so far have been exceptional too.

Before we get into today’s specific whisky, I’ll end this preamble on a little tidbit of further optimism. I’d mentioned their newly released 10 year old bottling - and I need to give a shout out to Rolfy for getting me the first sample of the Ardnamurchan 10yo at the Glasgow Whisky Festival - it’s pretty damn good and, upon trying, it prompted an immediate purchase. But, as touched upon earlier, consider that they’ve made this from the first half-year’s stock, when they were still finding their feet. Each and every year from now on will bring more mature stock for the team at Ardnamurchan to blend and bottle.

Furthermore, there are continued rumours of an operational change at the distillery - a malt floor on site - which should provide enough to, at least partly, allow them to add in-house, flavour-filled, floor-malted barley to their armoury. There are less than ten distilleries in Scotland with a permanently operational malting floor, and they’d join a list of the who’s who in fan-favourite distillates.

We’ll have a long wait to see how that all pans out, but this distillery is doing everything right to stay firmly in the focus field of malt fans the world over, and they’re not slowing down.

Review

Ardnamurchan Cask Strength, 2024 Release, 58.3% ABV
£65 and generally available

I picked this up from Royal Mile Whiskies after the Glasgow Whisky Festival for £65.

According to my QR code scan, this is bottle 115 of 7222. Bottled on 19th April 2024. The vast majority of the casks used for this release are American standard barrels (ASBs) with one butt thrown in the mix too. The barley variety used in this batch is concerto - from Broomhall farm - and 76 hours of fermentation.

Nose

Briny. Barley. Roasted white fish. Oat bread and black pepper with a soft note of vanilla extract. Some vegetal elements: reminding me of warm boiled baby potatoes and a heap of rock salt too. Very nice and oaty, right up my street. Wet and salty hessian bags, with charred wood, a wood smoke and dusty dunnage warehouse in the mixture. It’s bright and vibrant. Scoops of lemon curd and buttery pancakes. It finishes off with nutmeg, some white grapes and aerosol whipped cream.

Palate

A prickle on the tongue with the initial sip. It’s a dense dram with a glorious sweet peat. Fresh dates, stone fruits, plums, and a layer of fresh choux pastry. Some sponge cake, orange rind and shavings of dark chocolate. Caramel sauce with chocolate lime sweets. Nice peat smoke here, with some burnt embers and chopped walnuts thrown in too. Some fried bacon, dark roast coffee beans and burnt brussel sprouts (which I like). Such a lovely balance of sweetness, peat smoke and citrus. A long, smoked finish, coating the palate nicely, it sharpens toward the backend with sweet peat lingering on.

The Dregs

This has been the one expression from Ardnamurchan where I’ve sought out every release from the beginning. As soon as it appears, each year, it gets placed straight into the basket. I tend to prefer their unpeated releases when it comes to single casks, and I find the AD core range solid for the price, but this cask strength release has a grip and unique difference to the peat that is quite hard to top.

In one of the most recent Dramface podcasts, our man Rob mentioned his ‘hot take’ was that ‘the best peated Scotch doesn’t come from Islay’. I agree. Some of my favourite peated Scotches come directly from the Highlands and display exactly the balance I seek out. From Ardmore to Benromach, I love it. Yet this Ardnamurchan Cask Strength might top them all, which is saying something.

After sitting back on this style for so long, this release, for me, is their best so far. I’ve found each year brings just a little more enjoyment, flavour and grip. Maybe more mature stock is added each time? More skills in blending the final product perhaps? Whatever it is, they’ve all been solid and thoroughly enjoyable, but this one edges last year, just a bit.

The Ardnamurchan spirit and foundation is there, with sweet peat, citrus blasts and a delicious lingering note of coastal smoke that just hits the spot.

I’m a fan of this distillery. I love what they do. It’s about the character, the attitude, the style and - above all - the personality.

Enjoy this during the coming cold winter or keep an eye out for what else is in store in the coming years.

It might be tricky to work out where to start in whisky, and it might not be here, but it’s a good place to end up.

Score: 7/10

Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. HF

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