Ardnamurchan Golden Promise Cask 1060
Good Spirits Co. Single Cask | 58.9% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A golden stoater
Too much praise makes Dramface a dull place
Eventually, we arrive at a point of saturation.
For some of us it hits early. Many are happy and content for far longer but even the most dedicated and loyal devotee is eventually rendered exhausted; enthusiasm only lasts as long as we have someone else to be enthusiastic with, or for.
You may be arriving here fresh from yesterday’s declaration of love from Drummond for this style of Ardnamurchan spirit, so let me ask you: are you tired of hearing how good Ardnamurchan is yet?
I am. But I need to explain why.
The laziest of critique is to take an opposing stance simply for the sake of it.
Sometimes our intuition senses tedium due to the obvious popularity of something and we can have a knee-jerk reaction. It’s pretty easy to do, and sometimes we may even look ‘cool’ suggesting something is no longer cool. We can simply listen to what’s popular and decry it; stand up and shout about the opposite, denounce the thing - or the popularity surrounding it - and loudly share why we think it’s exaggerated. We’re often guaranteed an immediate response.
Simply by rolling our eyes at everyone else’s glee, we’re filled with enough impetus to formulate a counter argument, in any given space, touting the exact opposite. In the face of so much unison, our opinion may resonate and seem as if to shock people into taking on a jarring, differing and - dare I suggest - ‘fresh’ perspective.
Whether we actually believe in this assumed position or not is irrelevant. We’re content because it’s our mindset as contrarians and we’ve achieved something; impact. In our potential attention grabbing, we’ve not succeeded in delivering measured critique, nor have we positively contributed to improving the status of anything, we’ve simply proffered an opposing stance and dressed it to look like that’s our intention.
Depending on our delivery or how it lands, our position will either be ignored or tamped down by the enduring wave of sustained enthusiasm, or we’ll be amplified by like-minded voices in whom we’ve flicked a switch, or emboldened. In the end, while we may argue we’ve brought balance and pumped the brakes on the ‘hype’, it’s just as possible that in our baseless opposition all we’ve actually created is division.
Maybe I’ve had one dram too many from this wee bottle of single malt tonight, because this is feeling like a deep topic. Too deep for the light-hearted pages of Dramface perhaps. And I clearly have no idea what I’m actually talking about; none of this stuff barely registers in my area of expertise, this is because I have no areas of expertise - anywhere. But I state it because I’m about to throw a big score at this bottle and I’m already thinking along these lines and imagining the possible reaction. Almost as if it’s inevitable.
And that’s why I’m personally ‘tiring’ of hearing of Ardnamurchan’s popularity. Instead of celebrating all the amazing they’re achieving, I’m mindful of delivering ‘balance’ and ‘objectivity’.
I need to take a measured step back, relax; remind myself and everyone - it’s just a glass of whisky. It’s supposed to be fun. Why take myself so seriously? Well, because we’re all part of it and it may just be words and opinion and a glass of whisky to us, but to many it’s a passion; or a business with very real consequences and livelihoods. If we’re going to critique, we’d best be doing so for ethical, as opposed to lazy, oppositional reasons.
Yet even realising this can do little to assuage a sense of guilt; because we also have a readership with limited budgets and informed palates of their own. Perhaps it’s just too obvious to say it’s good. We need another angle; we need to freshen up the discourse, we need to remind everyone there are lots of great whiskies out there and put down our west-coast loud-hailers for just a wee minute. Stand up and say it is not the be-all and end-all, put it back in its box, set its gas at a peep and … ahhh.
You see… I said it was easy.
Because it’s just as obvious to shout that it’s not all that great. As emotive as whisky is, we need to place ourselves in a position of neutrality, as unaffected as possible by emotional inputs, gut reactions and swells of opinion, whatever they may be. Objectivity in whisky is often folly, but it needs to remain our goal.
After all, despite now being officially ten years old, most Ardnamurchan is still ‘young’. It is still ‘just’ malt whisky made from barley and water like every other malt in Scotchland and just how good can that actually be, honestly speaking? And yet. Time and again, as if by divinity, luck, alchemy or magic, they release something that we all seem to be very ready for.
There is something that exists in the liquids that spill from this Highlander that makes whisky botherers fizzle with excitement and genuine optimism for their future exploration. There’s a brand new Sauternes - just out (bought it) and an amazing milestone bottling of an Ardnamurchan by Adelphi at ten years old (congratulations - sought it out, bought it). It seems we all, eventually, learn to admire what they make.
Even the most cynical and jaded of commenters have our criticisms tempered by a mouthful or two of Ardnamurchan’s finest. We are settled not by a zeitgeist, echo-chamber or communal voice, but by a practical glass of tangible flavour guiding us to an objective realisation; it is, in a very real and visceral sense, just bloody good whisky.
It is not yet the best, not yet all conquering, and not yet a legend. But it’s well on the way. And this bottle of barley water - Golden Promise too I’ll have you know - is perhaps their best yet.
Now that I’ve uttered all of this gushing praise, you have tons with which to counter me.
Actually, here’s a little more.
Review
Ardnamurchan Golden Promise, Good Spirits Co. Exclusive Cask 1060, 2018 distilled, 2024 bottled, 6 years old, oloroso cask matured, 58.9% ABV
£89.50 paid, still available at time of writing
I bought this directly from Glasgow’s Good Spirits Co. and, despite everyone telling me it was the best Ardna they’d had, I took a contrary position and kept it sealed until the chatter had settled. I wanted to wait until I was ready to make my own contrarian mind up.
Then the whisky explained to me - in very easy to interpret terms, straight from the glass - that by waiting I was simply delaying the inevitable.
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A golden stoater
Nose
Mixed fruit jams, maple syrup, maraschino cherries, cod liver oil, waxy oranges, cedarwood, citrus pith and orange oils.
Palate
Gloopy and ridiculously mouth-coating. Silky, viscous and thick. Chewy chilli and balsamic vinegars arrive with a jammy sweetness. Tart citrus, cinnamon gobstoppers (Daredevils?), Soreen malt loaf, banana bread, clove oil and waxy honey. A long finish tapers into more citrus oils, brine and clove. A dark chocolate bitterness prevails. Just lovely, lovely stuff.
A splash of water tames the chilli heat and brightens the fruit with only a little detriment to the viscosity, but for full ‘gloopiness’ - go neat and embrace the heat.
Left: The George Hotel GP Cask 1062, right GSC GP Cask 1060
The Dregs
This is not going to compete with the legends of the past and it may not even match your own favourite picks of the last few years. What we have here is a modern whisky and - judged in that light - none of these things are better than the other; rather they are all very different things. Yet they are all equally delicious fodder for the pages of Dramface.
Wrapped up in the weight of what to say about whiskies such as this is the responsibility that comes with scoring them, which is what prompted the intro piece you may or may not have read to get here.
Yesterday, Drummond went all out and scored his bottle a solid 9/10 and I’m close to doing the same thing. Perhaps I just should have. Yesterday, I scored the sister 1062 cask a little less than he did but I almost scored it a 7, before I realised I was making a mistake. I was forcing things and being contrary for my own ends.
I knew this cask 1060 was coming and I wanted a demarcation, because we are after all comparing very similar things, but I felt this was a nudge better still, and I wanted to show that. But I need to remember this is Dramface and the devil lives in the detail. Both are truly, for me, something special.
So nothing to do with taking a contrary position to my pal and peer. I hope he shares his own thoughts when he opens his, since acquired, bottle of this. I’ll wager he’d score it similarly to his 1062 bottle from The George Hotel.
In today’s whisky landscape, and referring to our scoring system, there’s an argument it should be a 9/10 - this is exceptional, independent, new whisky. Better than yesterday’s? Well, yes, but only by a nudge and our scoring doesn’t allow me to make that obvious. Thanks for reading the words instead. I see this as a little richer, rounder and thicker, if maybe… arguably just a smidge less detailed.
That said, because of the sheer impact of it, and in the context of what it is, the only score I can settle with is a 8/10 - Something Special. On another night it may reach a 9. In the future I have no doubt that Ardnamurchan will release a 10. I hope Dramface is here to record it.
As contemporary new wave whiskies go - by concept, age, flavour or any other metric you want to throw at it - this one’s simply a stoater.
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. WMc
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