Lady of the Glen, Signatory & Thompson Bros | Various ABV

Score: 7/10

**Very Good Indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*All great pours, fun comparison, value plays a big part*

Replacing the scattergun with a laser beam

I haven’t tended to fanboy a distillery, preferring instead to pick and choose from a wide variety of distilleries and styles.

That’s no bad thing, especially when it’s only been the past four years where I have really started deep diving into whisky after years of casual drinking. My wallet thinks back fondly to those days, but that’s another story.

You do learn a lot on the journey, but trying a little bit of this from here and a little bit of that from there does tend to make you the proverbial jack of all trades and master of none. Whisky is booming, and with more and more distilleries coming online, it often feels futile trying to sample it all. I think there’s something to be said for having a focus.

By tasting many different expressions from one distillery, you can get to know what makes it what it is. What’s the signature that lets you know this is from that particular distillery? Does it work better in a certain type of cask and not so much in others? Is it better to be old or to be young or somewhere in between?

Dougie is our resident whisky fanboy (hope he doesn’t mind that moniker) who loves to delve in deep when he connects with a distillery, as he has with Ardnamurchan in particular. While I still think it’s important to be peppering the collection with some variety, if you find your whisky sweet spot, why would you not try and taste as much as you can from that distillery?

Dramface touched on this topic in the recent podcast episode seventeen, which I took in part way through writing this. I was listening along initially thinking how much of a copycat I’m going to look when I submit this piece, but I think this is a topic that resonates. Most of us have been, or possibly will be, fans of a distillery or group of distilleries at some point. Twitter and Instagram are full of enthusiasts who pinpoint one or two distilleries above all others in their collections.

I think subconsciously I’ve been looking for a distillery to push itself forward. I took a shine to Glengyle a few years back, but you’re on a bit of a hiding to nothing going down that route in 2023. The stress of trying to obtain Kilkerran and the sporadic nature of the releases takes away the shine somewhat. It’s like supporting your favourite football team, but being told you can only watch them play twice a year.

Benromach seemed another likely candidate for me to get stuck into. I adore the vintage cask strength bottlings and some of the Contrast series are worth having, but the core range needs to be better presented and there’s nothing being sold to independent bottlers for me to get my hands on more variety. The single cask exclusives I see crop up tend to be on the pricey side. I’m therefore happy to pick up the odd bottle here and there for now.

Then we get to Ardmore. I’ve had a few drams from the distillery in the past, including a sample of a fantastic 30 year old official bottling I wish I could afford a bottle of. Yet I hadn’t had that eureka moment. I then tried one of the bottles being reviewed today, and it clicked immediately That Ardmore style is right in my wheelhouse, or at least that particular bottle was. The light to moderate peat which provides both a seasoning and that touch of smoke. It’s what made me a fan of Benromach (12ppm), Kilkerran (15ppm) and Springbank (10-15ppm) too. Ardmore (12-14ppm) seems to be the perfect alternative to those wonderful, but frustrating distilleries. Few are rushing to buy it and the independent bottlers are well served and have lots of interesting releases covering an array of casks varieties. I can hear the Glen Scotia fans screaming at me, so it deserves a mention too. The core range is pretty good and hopefully the E150a is given the elbow soon. I’ve been buying a good amount of Scotia and will continue to, particularly their special releases, but something is just clicking for me with Ardmore.

I’ve initially focused on the type of cask which lets the spirit shine. Refill ex-bourbon tends to be my favourite in any case, but it also enables me to get a better gauge on the signature that makes Ardmore what it is. When I inevitably move on to buying bottles which have spent time in sherry or any other type of cask, I’ll know what the spirit and cask are bringing to the party in better detail. I have the unpeated whisky the distillery produces, usually labelled as Ardlair, to discover too.

I’m not suggesting I’m the first person to discover the beauty of Ardmore; far from it. A few of our writers here at Dramface are already fans, and many more enthusiasts are out there too. I can almost hear all those people that have already discovered Ardmore telling me to keep quiet. One person on social media told me so directly, and all I can do is apologise. When I get enthusiastic about something I like to enthuse. I take solace in the fact I can clearly see I’m not the first person to write a piece bestowing high praise on this particular distillery, and it’s still available to us. I think we will be okay.

The main reason Ardmore is not on everyone’s radar is mostly down to the pretty woeful core range. Calling it a range is a stretch, with only a single non-age statement Ardmore Legacy which is coloured, chill filtered and bottled at 40% ABV readily available. As basic supermarket whiskies you can pick up for £20 here in the UK go, it’s not bad, but I’m past the stage of enjoying that type of offering. I realise that might sound a bit snobbish, but I have better whiskies on my shelf and I’d rather buy one £40-50 bottle of higher quality whisky than two cheap ones. I wish I could pick up good whisky for £20-25 a bottle, but experience tells me I am better served by waiting until I have another £20-25 in my pocket and buying something better.

The Ardmore website lists three other whiskies in its range all at a much improved 46% and non-chill filtered. A travel retail exclusive called Tradition, a Port Wood Finish and Triple Wood. The Tradition might as well not exist as I don’t frequent airports often, and the other two appear to suffer from a lack of availability with retailers. I suspect the website hasn’t been updated recently and these are whiskies of the past.

Owners Beam Suntory have a portfolio of real Scottish distillery gems. Over on Islay they have Bowmore and Laphroaig, in the lowlands Auchentoshan, and in the Highlands they have Glen Garioch and Ardmore. The core range from all those distilleries have their issues, particularly when it comes to bottling strength, added colour and chill filtering. Glen Garioch is probably the best of the bunch in terms of presentation across the board with a minimum of 48% ABV, but it only consists of a 12 year old and a non-age statement Founders’ Reserve at what I would describe as reasonable prices. There are one or two other bottlings, but they appear to be few and far between and expensive.

All five distilleries can be found bottled by independents, but the Islay pair are rarely cheap when you see them, as is Auchentoshan, for some reason that I can’t quite fathom. Ardmore and Glen Garioch are the ones you’re more likely to find at fair and accessible prices. Thank god for the independent bottlers, as long as they are well served with casks you don’t need a core range from the distillery to get your geek on.

Ardmore switched from coal-fired to steam-heated stills as recently as 2001, and I’m keen to try and pick up a few bottles from before this change was made while they’re still relatively available in terms of price. The auctions may be my friend here, as anything distilled pre-2001 is £100 plus purely on the basis of its age. I might need to look at younger bottlings that were bottled in the early to mid-2000s to discover Ardmore from that era. As I find time and time again with this passion for whisky, I’m left wishing I had been hooked on a few years earlier. Que sera sera and all that.

All three of the bottles I’m reviewing today were distilled late 2009 to early 2010, and bottled late 2022 to early 2023, with the Thompson Brothers and Lady Of The Glen interestingly distilled and bottled a matter of days apart. That pair are also both single cask refill ex-bourbon barrel matured. You can’t ask for a much better comparison than that. The Signatory is bourbon barrels again, but doesn’t say whether the trio of barrels used are first-fill, refill, or a combination, but the colour would suggest it could well be a refill also.

Review 1/3

Thompson Brothers Ardmore 2009 13yo, 50% ABV
£55 Sold out.

Matured in a single refill ex-bourbon barrel between December 2009 and January 2023 and bottled at 50% ABV. Non-chill filtered and natural colour. Price paid £55. Sold out.

thompson bros ardmore 13 year old bottle — Score: 7/10

**Very Good Indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*Great value at £55*

Nose

The smoke doesn’t hit hard, but is very much there. Wood smoke and dry earthiness, like hot rocks on a campfire, with herbal notes of liquorice and rosemary. I’ve nosed it a few times and that fresh rosemary is definitely present in my mind, and is rather pleasant. There’s a sweet, sour, acidic freshly chopped cooking apple aroma, vanilla cream, copper coins, leather, and a pinch of salt rounding things off nicely.

Palate

The smoke makes a greater impact on the palate. It’s sweet, ashy and mineralic, with more of the apple sour I was getting from the nose working nicely with the bitter, charred woodsmoke flavour. There is a big liquorice note that comes in after a few seconds, and with the sweetness it reminds me of Black Jack chews I grew up eating. Lemon oil makes an appearance, as does some tingly ginger, with the ashiness lingering to reveal tobacco among the wood smoke and dry, old leather. The finish brings in a creaminess, with a touch of menthol amongst the dying embers of the smoke.

Review 2/3

Signatory Vintage Ardmore 2010 12yo, 46% ABV
£46.95 Still some availability.

Matured in three ex-bourbon barrels (casks 800518, 800527, 800531) from April 2010 to November 2022 and bottled at 46%. Non-chill filtered and natural colour.

Score: 7/10

**Very good indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*I bought a second.*

Nose

Bright, fruity and very apple-like. Hardly any of the smoke is present here. The apples are sweet, slightly sour, but appear more like a juicy eating apple, along with a confectionery sweetness of foam bananas. The wood smoke is there, but it’s the most gentle of the three. Trying it alongside the others in this line-up almost masks it, trying it alongside something unpeated reveals it more. Aniseed is present too, along with copper coins and black tea, but this is a rather delicate Ardmore. The fruit is what shines through.

Palate

Here comes the smoke. It’s sweet and ashy again. It’s the wood smoke, with a light earthiness and more of the liquorice chews and charred oak. It’s bright and fruity in among all that, with apple, lemon and a nice touch of peach. As it develops the smoke intensifies, with herbal tea, menthol and dry leather. The dry pebble earthiness returns at the end, with vanilla and hazelnut.

Review 3/3

Lady Of The Glen Ardmore 2009 13yo, 58.2% ABV
£75 Still some availability.

Matured in a single refill ex-bourbon barrel between December 2009 and February 2023 and bottled at 58.2%. Non-chill filtered and natural colour.

Score: 7/10

**Very good indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*Still great, poor for value by comparison*

Nose

Immediately I notice this is more floral than the other two – meadow flowers and fresh white cotton sheets. There’s more of the sweet and confectionery fruits. Apple again, peach iced tea, lemon oil and bubblegum. Copper coins, wood polish and light woodsmoke are present, with this one being somewhere in between the smokier Thompson Brothers and barely noticeable smoke aromas in the Signatory bottling. The earthy pebbles are there too along with funky farmyard and grassy notes.

Palate

The undiluted cask strength nature of this one does give a more syrupy mouthfeel. The smoke is more noticeable than the others and gives plenty of wood smoke. The liquorice is present again too, along with menthol, and fruit in the form of lemon and peach. It’s quite prickly, even when water is employed to bring down the ABV closer to the other two, but in no way negative. The smoke begins to intensify, with bitter charred wood and more of the liquorice. As I get to the finish, there’s vanilla and rock salt, with apple peels and lingering, but diminishing smoke.

The Dregs

I feel like I’ve found a distillery that plays to many of the aspects I love to find in a whisky, and there is plenty more to be discovered. Three bottles that are all are going to be hard to reach past until those final drips fall from the neck.

The first bottle I bought was the Thompson Brothers, which then turned me on to the Signatory bottle when I was searching for something similar. The Lady Of The Glen was the third purchase and the most expensive, but having tried and loved the previous two already, and having heard from a couple of people it was a decent Ardmore, I was confident that the money would be well spent. A 10% off voucher sweetened the deal too.

The comparable elements are fairly obvious. The woodsmoke, apples and liquorice in particular make an appearance across the board, but even then the differences in the way they present themselves are very noticeable, despite them essentially being the same liquid matured in the same type of cask for almost identical lengths of time. There are also a few notes that don’t appear at all in one, but show up in the other. Perhaps it’s down to the different ABVs, or that no two casks are ever the same even if they appear so on paper, or the fact it is unlikely they have been sitting next to each other in the same warehouse for all the years they were maturing. Whisky continues to hang on to many of its mysteries, which is how it should be.

It’s a tough call between the three, but I will say that I was able to pick up a second bottle of the Signatory for less than £50. The Thompson Brothers bottle is long gone at retail and was excellent value at £55, and while the Lady Of The Glen is not extortionate, it’s a touch expensive for me to be buying multiples of when I can pick up something of similarly high quality for almost £30 less. Spending £75 or more on a bottle of liquid is not a decision I take lightly, even as prices rise and more whisky enters that price bracket. Having said that, I’d love another.

In the end I have given them all a very good score of 7, so which do I like the best?

It’s tough because they are all great for different reasons and I would recommend each of them. Come on Ramsay, no sitting on the fence or you’ll get a bum full of splinters. OK, here goes. The fruit is what sings with the Signatory bottling, with the smoke taking more of a back seat on the nose in particular. It’s lighter than the other two and more easy drinking. You could make a large dent in the bottle in no time at all; think Glencadam 10 with a bit of peat.

When all is said and done it’s probably the third place choice when price is not factored in. Second, I’m going to place the Lady Of The Glen. It feels a touch more spirity than the others, even when diluted a little, but I am a big fan of the florals on the nose and the smoke on the palate. It’s a delicious whisky. The winner is the one that started this exploration. There is a reason the Thompson brothers bottles are in demand and often require a ballot process to obtain, and I don’t think it’s all down to the fancy labels. I initially lost the ballot for this one, only to find it with a retailer a few weeks later and snatching one before it sold out.

This is an excellent whisky and I nearly gave it an 8/10. I don’t think the 50% ABV is to keep the bottle price down. Most of their offerings appear to be cask strength, and they price fairly regardless. I suspect with this one they have judged it to work best at 50% and I would say they have it bang on. If I could still get hold of it at £55 I’d have another in a heartbeat. I have only had a few Thompson Brothers bottles, but they have always delivered quality. It’s an independent bottler where I will happily go in blind if the price is right.

I mentioned Benromach, Kilkerran and Springbank whiskies earlier as having a broadly similar peating level for the malted barley, but the smoke in Ardmore certainly appears to be a little more overt on the palate. Having said that, it’s still well integrated and not the big whack of smoke you’ll find with something like an Ardbeg. I tried the recently released and very delicious bourbon cask matured Kilkerran 8 alongside the cask strength Lady Of The Glen to try and get a clearer read on their similarities and differences. The Kilkerran is 8/10 and I’d fanboy bourbon cask Kilkerran to death if I could buy it regularly, but unfortunately I can’t. Anyway, that’s that reviewed. As for the comparison, the immediate difference on the nose is the lack of the funk in the Ardmore. That peaty, farmyard, mechanical thing is in the Kilkerran with very subtle wisps of smoke, whereas the Ardmore is cleaner, sweeter, more fruit and with a hint more smoke. It’s a fairly similar story on the palate too. Both show their smokier side here, but particularly the Ardmore with its building ashiness.

You won’t find a like for like replacement for any of these distilleries in Ardmore. It’s different, but it does have similar qualities that will appeal. The level of peat in the malted barley is only one part of the picture when it comes to the final product, with the peat source and various other processes that the malt goes through (mashing, fermentation, distillation etc.) before it makes it into a cask different at each distillery. According to Scotchwhisky.com the Ardmore new make comes out with a phenol level of 3.5-6ppm, but I am not sure how that compares with the new make of the other distilleries mentioned, I suspect in a similar ballpark. Then again, which information do you trust? Scotchwhisky.com (amongst others) say the malt used to make Kilkerran is peated to 8-10ppm, but the distillery website says 15ppm. Figures vary depending on the source for the other distilleries too. Apologies if any of my quoted figures are incorrect, but they have limited relevance in any case and it seems much more pertinent to use your own judgement from the glass in front of you when it comes to how much the peated barley impacts on any whisky. In my view, Ardmore is a little smokier and herbal in nature than Kilkerran, Springbank and Benromach. The most important metric of all is that it’s good stuff.

I’m not suggesting from now on all I’ll buy is Ardmore and I’m dismissing everything else out there, but I will perhaps look to pick up one bottle a month for the foreseeable future. I’m buying on average three or four bottles in a given month at the moment, so it’s only going to account for a quarter to a third of my whisky purchases. I’m excited to be going on this journey of discovery with Ardmore.

Score: 7/10

Tried these? Share your thoughts in the comments below. RT

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