Ardnamurchan April Fool
The Whisky Exchange 2022 Release | 53.2% ABV
Score: 5/10
Average. In a good way.
TL;DR
The edge of the Ardnamurchan sour spectrum, still worthy of exploration
An expansion of the Dougie Ardnamurchan Scale arrives just in time.
It’s one of contemporary whisky’s unfortunate downsides, oft complained about and culprit for many a dummy spat (including the entire collection of artisanal dummies Dougie Crystal had sitting on his shelf), and is certainly showing no signs of slowing down. Auctions are here to stay and I can’t deny being the beneficiary of many fantastic auction bottlings, albeit ones that have almost certainly lost the seller a fair bit of money.
May 2022 saw auction sites flooded as always, with countless Springbanks, Aberlour, Macallan and Dalmore bottles, and also loads of this - a cheeky collab with whisky powerhouse shoppe and online empire The Whisky Exchange, and western Highland outlier the Ardnamurchan distillery. A shame really, given these bottles are created through incredible human skill, resource, time and energy to be enjoyed through the medium of our faceholes, and instead find themselves being enjoyed through eyeballs wide with the potential for a few quick profitable bucks.
I pitched several times for a bottle of this at auction, watching prices steadily grow with each subsequent auction until it was out of reach. Such is life, I moved on and found something else to bid for - and there’s only so much Ardnamurchan whisky you can have, right? Right? Hmm, I guess I don’t follow traditional logic looking at the state of my illuminated supershelf, but then I’ve written enough now about my limpet tendencies for the Glenbeg Uisge Beatha that could easily justify chasing most bottlings from this distillery, even if I’ve sworn off that practice.
Out of the blue I was given this as a surprise gift; I was really chuffed knowing I could try it while avoiding the premiums demanded at auction. It was almost written in the stars this bottle would be coveted as auction fodder though, because it’s presented in such an unusual way that it undoubtedly resonates with the magpie instincts of speculators.
The label is pristine white with metallic gold foiling, stating that this whisky is: “Extremely old, I wish I were younger.” A crystal ball and large gold “April Fool” intimates this might not be the case. Sure enough, using the included small UV torch, you can reveal the text: “We fooled you into believing that this was extremely old… voila! Your wish is granted.”
The glowing blue lines appear to reveal Ardnamurchan as the whisky inside, but not how old it actually is. Luckily on the back label there’s more of the invisible UV text and the whisky is revealed to be a marriage of unpeated and peated 5-year-old malt from first-fill bourbon and oloroso casks.
It’s a really clever trick and something rarely seen on whisky labels. Interestingly enough, the blended whisky offshoot The Gauldrons by Douglas Laing & Co released a cask strength version of their whisky not long after this Ardna collab with their own take on UV labels. I’m still hovering over the buy button as I type. As someone who enjoys taking photos of labels and highlighting the little bits of hidden effort that go into these things, having the additional element of UV glowing lines and designs is a boon for me. Curiosity always gets the better of me, and so I opened it up later that same day to see what this new expression of my most revered new whisky smelled and tasted like. And then I closed it again.
Review
April Fool 2022, Ardnamurchan 5yo x The Whisky Exchange, 53.2% ABV
£55 at launch
The first pour was wildly hot and took a dousing of water to bring it back under control. The second pour likewise. I left it for a week, tried again, and it was still aflame. Weeks passed and I kept dipping in to find what I eventually pegged down as citrus bang was still front and centre. I sampled a few wee bottles out to bring the fill level down and set it aside to see if a bit of time and air would reduce the fiercely sharp edge.
In between I've been continuing my inquiries into other distilleries - Glen Garioch, Glentauchers, Tomatin, Kingsbarns, Highland Park, Tullibardine et al - expanding my whisky knowledge more and more with each new bottle pop. I also gathered a few new Ardnamurchan expressions too: a hand-fill from the distillery in April 2023, the joyous CK.339, and a charity bottle which raised money for the My Name’5 Doddie foundation, named after late Scottish international rugby legend Doddie Weir OBE.
All of these have been wonderful whiskies, stoking the inferno burning inside for Ardnamurchan whisky and causing most folk I know inside whiskyland to begin a concerted, synchronised eye-roll.
My brother in law (of Paul Launois bottle share fame) was visiting at the weekend and we chatted about the ins and outs of what was sitting on the illuminated supershelves. He’s a bit of an Ardnamurchan fan too and he asked how many I’d accumulated. Counting them up I remembered the April Fool bottle was tucked away in the cupboard, so I dug it out to show him the fancy label. After he left, the bottle remained in plain sight and, as is good and proper conduct, I had a wee dram of it.
Nose
Big wood. Fresh. Coastal. Sweet wood: cedar and oak obvs. Salty squash court. Choc ice with strawberry sauce and maybe a hint of balsamic. Rocks and wood. Typical smorgasbord of sweet smells - toffee, caramel, fudge, chocolate, bit of sweet gingerbread maybe. Water brings out more cedar wood.
Palate
Hot and sharp with cooking apples. Citrus - limes ahoy: zest and pith. Sour and very hot - throat burn. Lots of sharpness but once the burn has dissipated it reveals a more trad Ardna feel - sweet oaky fudge with a rocky coastal vibe.
Water, and a lot of it, brings everything back into line with a very clear Ardnamurchan coastal character. But after all that effort and tinkering, it feels like it still hides in the shadow of the AD/ releases, whether core range white label or special edition black label cask strengths. As for CK bottlings…
The Dregs
It’s still hot and edgy but for whatever reason now feels hotter and edgier than it was before - my dalliances with other distilleries might have reframed and repositioned it accordingly. I love drinking whisky at rocket ship strength; visceral and turbocharged, it gives me an indication of how it came out of the cask and that’s important information in the tank, for me. I water it down, sometimes too far, to see how it opens up, changes or develops in the glass, however I spend most of my time at the cask strength stage, sometimes not watering it down at all.
Coming back to this after a month or two break I couldn’t help but be a little bit alarmed at how sharp it has become. A few drams at full-butt and I’m instinctively reaching for the sweeter stuff, because this is quite the citrus whisky. I’d like to think I have a fairly good grasp of Ardnamurchan whisky by now, and the general characteristics of this beautiful spirit; an overt citrus element has only really presented at this potency in the Paul Launois bottlings with a very lovely integrated sour note that, to some, presents as effervescence, or a freshness at least. In every other bottling a citrus note is probably hidden in there, melded into the overall flavour profile, but might arrive as a salty note. Not sweet and not savoury, but with “grip” - a flavour presence that elevates the non-sweet notes above the rest. The Paul Launois bottling settles into a more roundly sweet/sour/salty affair and is why it’s so darned delicious.
This bottling on the other hand started sharp and has remained sharp. There is, hidden under 5-10ml of water, a more widely enjoyed Ardna character but it’s subverted by the overpowering citrus blanket draped over the whole shooting match. Water tamps it down and eventually I reach what could be considered similar to the core range bottlings - the cask makeup and attributes are quite similar. It’s certainly not like the Ardnamurchan Cask Strength, because that’s biassed towards peated malt, tastes sweetly balanced yet maritime smokey and is magnificent.
I’ve been waiting for the day I try an Ardnamurchan that falls below what I’d expected of it. In fact it’s almost come as a bit of relief - my shoulders have finally retreated from their elevated position beside my ears. Despite not finding it on par with other things I’ve tried, my knowledge of the Glenbeg spirit has still broadened, expanding my appreciation of this particular distillate and the multitude of things that can be found inside matured examples of it. This is a great case of something a bit too hot and sharp but, through the appraisal of it, I can see how that character could be deployed in a blend of other sweeter casks and is probably a fantastic string in the overall bow. But when offered up as a one-string solo, the sound it produces is glassy and pointed, a bit cold and unsettling.
All that said, this is still good whisky and I don’t feel negatively towards it or disappointed by it at all - one person’s sour is another person’s sweet. For me it’s the outermost limit of the sour Ardna spectrum I’ve found so far, and I’m all the wiser for having experienced it. One day I might find the limits of the sweet or savoury Ardna spectrum, and that too will be a good experience. If you’re built like me, and many are, any chance to subject yourself to experiences from a resonant distillery is always a worthwhile endeavour.
Score: 5/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DC
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