DCB 042202, 2022 Core Release | 46.8% ABV

Chasing Whisky: Is it really worth it?

Swishing my finger up the glass screen, it takes me a few moments to navigate back to when I posted on Instagram the first tentative words to describe my experience with Ardnamurchan whisky.

In September 2021, I wrote: “For some reason I was expecting something... I dunno, like other young whiskies? Obviously I had it all wrong because when I tasted it, the very first thought that zapped into my withering mind was that of a late autumnal bonfire wafting on the cold wind. You know the one. Farmers burning leaves or whatever. It was exhilaration and confusion balled into one.”

I hadn’t long finished my first sips of peated whisky at the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh - a Port Charlotte 10yo - before I opened the Ardnamurchan 07.21:05. Like a halfway house towards peated whisky, the Ardnamurchan didn’t have the vision-fuzzing heft of an Islay powerhouse, but it did have enough smokey tendencies to elicit a vision of farmers burning stuff upwind a mile or two. How interesting; how exciting for a whisky to have a smoked flavour yet still balance a sweet marshmallow-like vanilla note. It was something entirely new to me. Sure, I’d only been inside the whisky bubble for a matter of months, but I was on an upwards trajectory of tasting, acquiring and bottle popping that was matched only by a Saturn V rocket.

Since January 2021, I’ve managed to try many whiskies and I’m comfortably inside triple digits now if I include small samples and distillery tastings in that count. It’s been something of a stratospheric rise in experiencing whisky smells and tastes, but that’s me: if I’m doing something, I’m bloody well doing it.

Shortly after I opened the Ardnamurchan 07.21:05, they released a new expression called 10.21:06 which I bought immediately and quickly opened. I enjoyed both of these and replaced them when they were demolished. Between drinking the two, I went in search of more knowledge-expanding experiences, which included a fortnight of peat exploration when I opened Ardbegs, Port Charlottes and samples of Lagavulin, Springbank and Glenturret. When I returned to Ardnamurchan, bonfires and smoke had receded, replaced by a robust yet delicate sweetness that paired well with an almost salty, coastal air mashup. It was at this moment I realised what it meant for me, my whisky journey and my palate: to get the best out of this joyous liquid I must expand and condition my palate by trying anything and everything. And so I did.

I went off to Johnnie Walker and remained stoic through their slick Princes Street Experience in Edinburgh - it showed what happens when whisky is made for people who don’t really care much about whisky. I enjoyed a number of whisky club meetings, trying all my friends’ whisky collections and seeing what they liked and didn’t. I started multiple infinity bottles and dabbled with those before leaving them to marry for some months. I broke Scottish borders and bought some Irish, Australian and English whisky, each one expanding and growing my abilities to identify and appreciate the subtleties of whisky as a whole. I would come back to our own products and smile from ear to ear when I realised just how spectacular it is - Scots know how to make unbelievably good whisky. After each poke, prod and sample, I’d turn to Ardnamurchan and see what I found with each developmental increment; every time I would be struck by just how damn delicious it is.

Towards the end of 2021, there were rumblings of an Ardnamurchan special release and it appeared in the guise of the single cask AD/11:14 CK.339 - and oh boy did I chase that bottle. I emailed everyone. I refreshed websites to the point I was warned to stop refreshing websites. I checked social media relentlessly and frantically messaged shops, finally able to locate one at Callander Drinks Co. I opened it on Christmas Day and was surprised by how sherried it was, and how perfectly it sat within our decadent day - a new memory created thanks to whisky. Over months of teasing the whisky out of the matte blue bottle, it was finally gone and I realised then how much I love what Ardnamurchan are doing. I know I’m going on a bit, but when you find a place that resonates with you in such a profound way, you really can’t talk enough about it. 

The problem is I’m not the only one who thinks like this and it’s manifesting in a way that finding, buying or even searching for bottles of Ardnamurchan is becoming a bit of a task. Auctions list them in their droves, but they always command quite a bit more than what it cost at retail, putting most bottles firmly outside of my budget. I tried to win another CK.339 but my bid of £90, a whole bloomin’ tenner more than I paid for it, was blown out of the water with five days of the auction still remaining. I think it went under the hammer for £180 and forced me to readdress my expectations. That was the case for most other expressions too, from inaugural releases, through to single casks, shop bottlings, to April Fool’s Day UV ink funny business; all commanding many times more than retail asked.

It’s a shame and I know it sounds like sour grapes (because it is); I just want to try more varieties of their beautiful spirit, and I can’t. That’s not because they didn’t make enough of it or that Ardnamurchan is an expensive product (it’s one of the most reasonably priced out there), but because I wasn’t quick enough, flexible, connected or determined enough to seek it out and get it. Standing outside Luvians on a Tuesday morning is not realistic for me. My capacity for chasing whisky, even back then, was very small. And so, with a teenager whine and a soft stomp, I vowed to give up this nonsense and be happy with what I could get. Despite being a young distillery, Ardnamurchan are on a monumental rise in popularity and there’s nothing I want more than deserved success for them. They’re doing things right and I respect it. And anyway, I still had some unopened core ranges in my cupboard and I took some samples from that CK.339 before it was gone, so fine - that’ll just have to be it for me.

I travelled to the Ardnamurchan peninsula in April this year for a week’s holiday with the family. Knowing how close we were - just down the road in Strontian - and that the distillery was opening up again after lockdown, it was a matter of course to go and see the place. But this visit re-opened the recently healed wounds of desperation, this time more viscerally, more fervently, because after our excellent tour we were given a number of drams to try. This included the CK.339, the 5yo McLean & Bruce sensation, and a 2021 Paul Launois.

The CK.339 was as wonderful as I remembered, the Maclean & Bruce was beautiful stuff too, but it was the Paul Launois that had my motor going. The extra layer of bright, effervescent zing was almost too luscious to bear. I was sitting on the dancing-man etched wooden stool, badgering our guide DJ to tell me where I could get my hands on this incredible whisky, when a racket of people thumped up the stairs and introduced themselves as the folk from Paul Launois who here to blend the 2022 release of their inimitable whisky. Four days later, Ardnamurchan released their cask strength bottling and I slumped into an unabashed whisky-engaged freefall of admiration.

Weeks passed and I kept my eyeballs scanning the horizon for the Paul Launois release while ripping the arse out the cask strength - what a dram that is! I’m not in possession of a brass neck, so I didn’t feel comfortable messaging the Ardnamurchan social accounts so instead I just waited patiently, silently observing and preparing to launch at a moment’s notice. I briefed my wife that I might disappear and to prepare herself for me being a bit erratic: I must get my hands on this next edition. To be fair, she was pretty cool about it, knowing how much I’d banged on about the other Ardnamurchan whiskies and she even asked if she could be of assistance. Is that the real mark of a whisky obsession when even your long-suffering wife is enabling you? Out of seemingly nowhere the countdown was on - a week to go, a few days to go and then finally launch day of the Paul Launois 2022. Despite all that planning, getting multiple routes to purchase set up and messaging folk in readiness, I missed out on every single one. I was always two steps behind. I reluctantly phoned shops, apologising for being one of those guys, I travelled to shops nearby and further afield in the hopes I’d find one sitting about - not a chance. All routes to success were revealed as damp squibs and all was seemingly lost, until the boys at Kinnaird Head Whiskies fired a flare into the darkening sky, signalling that there was still a way. A ballot was announced to win the chance to buy a Paul Launois for anyone that purchased a bottle of the new core range AD/, which launched on the same day, but was obscured by the red haze of rushing hands grabbing the Launois.

I purchased a bottle of the AD/ because I bloody love Ardnamurchan whisky and, reconciling how little chance I had at winning the Launois purchase link, accepted my lowly position in this world of whisky snaffling and awaited with excitement the arrival of the aesthetically tweaked, easier to understand core range. Weeks went by and nothing was received in the inbox - I know because I refreshed it morning and afternoon each day for all of those weeks. Eventually, sheepishly, I messaged the boys and was given the bad news - I hadn’t won and their email system for alerting those who were unsuccessful had messed up. Such is life - despite being way too disappointed at missing out on a whisky bottle and watching as folk triumphantly posted their golden totems of success and status, I wasn’t bitter about it. What a bare faced lie - I was crushed. I had MO’d, having lived through the FO. Even more so when the 2022 Paul Launois started to appear in auctions soon after. I made a promise right there and then that I will never chase whisky ever again.

Review

Ardnamurchan AD/ Official Release, 46.8% ABV
£46 & widespread availability - finally!

A week before I opened this new AD/ bottle, I popped the stopper on my last remaining 10.21:06 and reminded myself of the caliber of core range whisky that Ardnamurchan are producing. Then I opened the AD/, scanning the QR code on the rear label as I did and discovered I have bottle 120 out of 25,200. It’s safe to say this new core release will be around for a wee while.

So what can this bottle, the latest version of their youthful maturing whisky, deliver to us in 2022? Well I see from the incredible transparency Ardnamurchan provides through the QR code and the data presented therein, that the barley for this is similar to other releases; grown at Broomhall farm, in the Gateside field using Concerto barley. “In the Gateside field” - don’t tell me that traceability isn’t on Ardnamurchan’s agenda. I read the mash was fermented for 76 hours, on average, using Fermentis & Anchor yeast; Gordon Mackenzie sorted this stage out for me - thank you. One wash still and one spirit still was used to create the new-make that was cut between 69% and 75% ABV. Finally we come to the maturation and a PDF opened to reveal 34 unpeated casks, and 36 peated casks were used. Some of the list shows unmarked casks in terms of wood used, but I’m guessing first or second-fill bourbon, and also four different sources of sherry cask - Spanish and American oak of both Oloroso and Pedro Ximinez sherried origins respectively.

As whisky exciters, what more can we want? The information is right there at our fingertips. I now know the barley, temperatures, yeasts, fermentation times, distillation cuts and barrels used because they’re all detailed, at length, on the very bottle I’m pouring the whisky from.

It’s brilliant engagement for people like me - I love knowing this stuff and I wish I could know it for all the whiskies I’m drinking - not from a perspective of checking, pixel-peeping or assuring truth of what’s inside, but from an education and interest perspective. It’s really interesting to know what it takes to make the stuff. Some drinkers aren’t interested in this level of detail, and some distilleries might not be willing to reveal what could easily be regarded as intellectual property. If I wanted to start a distillery tomorrow I’d already know a lot of the information that’s difficult to work out through trial and error - temperatures of the mash, for example. Not that I’m going to do that, or that I ever could - it’s infinitely more complex to make whisky than copying what Ardnamurchan are showing on their QR website, but you get my drift.

Anyway - what about the whisky?

Nose

Dusty. Citrus. Lime chocolates. Orange cream chocolates. Scotch tape. Salty spice. Natural yoghurt. Distant sweet cherry. Cinnamon.

Palate

Kiwi fruit. Delicate sharpness - grapefruit. Sweet smoke. Honey, toffee, caster sugar in Tupperware. Heathery chocolate. Salted caramel. Hint of match strike paper. Creosote whiff. 

The Dregs

My daughter turned seven years young in July this year and we celebrated the miracle of a child with a wee back-garden party and inviting the family. My brother-in-law, who accompanied me on the April trip to the Ardnamurchan distillery, has also remained a bit of an Ardna-exciter after our visit. He too was looking forward to the Paul Launois release and, unlike me, was able to find one up where he lives on the Black Isle. I asked him for a wee sample or two but he brought the whole unopened bottle to the party so we could open it and enjoy the magic together. How lovely, to think that he had this bottle and refrained from opening it just so we could both discover if it matched our expectations at the same time. He wasn’t shy with measures either, and before long we had made our way halfway down the bottle - something I felt guilty about, despite his protestations that it’s what whisky is all about. But more importantly it gave me an insight into what would have been the last bottle of whisky I ever chased.

I’ll say this - it was another cracking example of Ardnamurchan whisky and their ability to make astoundingly good spirit, but it was not as perspective shifting as I’d expected. When I sat in the tasting room at the distillery in April, the 2021 Paul Launois was a fascinating, complex, eye-brow raising experience - something I’d never tasted before. Despite my excitement to try the 2022 version and the great experience of opening it together, the Paul Launois was a tiny bit too sharp and sour versus what I expected of it. For all that it didn’t live up to my towering expectations and subsequently failed to fundamentally change the trajectory of my life, it reaffirmed my naivety and reminded me of what everyone else already knows: chasing whisky is a fool's game.

I’m glad I didn’t end myself trying to secure a bottle of this whisky because it could only have resulted in confirmation bias, and that’s not the way I want to enjoy, appreciate and explore whisky. Done through a prism of effort-to-obtain-equivalence, whisky will always disappoint  - especially if that effort was monumental. No whisky can live up to such hype, definitely not one squidged through my own hype machine, which has been working in red-hot overdrive since April. I’ve some samples tucked away to return to in a while once I’ve been around the block a few more times.

This AD/ core range on the other hand, released under the dense cloud of champagne tears, meandered into my world as nonchalantly as a Sunday afternoon post-brisket shuffle. I expected nothing of it because my attention was elsewhere; it was an afterthought, a means to an end - great to have but I want that other thing more… and I’ve done it a huge disservice. This right here is what excites me when it comes to Ardnamurchan. This is the whisky I return to after my various dalliances with other whiskies and guffaw at how brilliant it is. It’s whisky done with transparency, aye, but more than anything it’s whisky produced in a way that tastes absolutely bangin’, and I cannot see any reason, at this price, with this level of effort, detail, presentation and availability, to say anything negative about it. Apart from that I wished the distillery was closer. For all that Ardnamurchan distillery has been, is now and ever will be, convenient it certainly is not. But with whisky this good coming out of it, what does it matter? 

Not a single jot.

Score: 7/10

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

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