Ardnamurchan Madeira Cask
AD/10:22 Release | 58.2% ABV
Score: 8/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
The Ardnamurchan signature balanced with a red berry infusion
I was a sceptic
I’m not going to wax lyrical about Ardnamurchan distillery. Not because I don’t believe it deserves it - it absolutely does - but because enough of my fellow Dramface writers are doing so much better than I could.
However, let me say I agree with all of the praise the distillery gets, but I was sceptical… before I’d actually tasted the liquid, that is. I suppose this review is geared toward those of you who maybe haven’t tried anything from the distillery yet, who see all the high praise and who might also be a little incredulous. I was too. For those of you who are already fans, I’ll just briefly share my journey this year with Ardnamurchan and how I came to agree with you all, because at the beginning of 2022, I had never tried anything from the distillery.
I watched various releases drop and witnessed the swirling buzz around the core and special releases. I saw the online scramble for limited releases and wondered if they were chasing bottles because they really were that good, or perhaps because they viewed them as investment bottles. I could understand both but with such young whisky I thought, surely, these folks are either buying the bottles with one hand and the flipping them with the other, or squirrelling them away in the hope that the buzz about the distillery continues in the years ahead and handsome secondary market prices to boot.
Skip ahead to July 2022. My partner and I decided to take a holiday to a part of Scotland neither one of us really knew well. After some dart throwing at a map, the Ardnamurchan peninsula it was. While the distillery wasn’t the main reason for our trip, I booked a tour because like most of us I get a kick out of the sheer sensory experience of steaming mash tuns and bubbling washbacks, but also because I was curious about Ardnamurchan and the hype surrounding it.
We drove north from Glasgow, along the side of Loch Lomond, and through the outpost-feel village of Tyndrum (home to The Green Welly Stop and the Tyndrum Whisky shop). We made our way across the bleak but beautiful Rannoch Moor, snaking through the brooding and magnificent Glen Coe, and up to the tiny Corran Ferry just south of Fort William. It was a drive I’d done many a time on my hiking and camping trips further northwards. But once across on the ferry and driving across the peninsula, I realised this part of Scotland had something different to offer. While there were summer tourists around, no village, beach or path felt crowded, unlike other more honeypot areas of the country.
“a stunning location on the shores of Loch Sunart overlooking the Atlantic”
Driving along the curvaceous road alongside the long Loch Sunart, with the rocky coastline on our left and thick green forests on our right, we made our way to our accommodation in the small village of Acharacle. We did some hiking, climbing the highest mountain in the area, Ben Resipol, and surveyed the craggy and wild panorama where the western Highlands meet the north Atlantic. One morning we made our way further along the loch to the distillery for our pre-booked tour. Other than the scattered houses and the occasional small village, there was not much out there. We loved it.
The tour itself was the standard one which we shared with three other people. Standard, but excellent. Our guide was welcomely informal but very professional even with our small group. She let us take as much time as we wanted at each spot, and let us spend a few extra minutes wandering around the warehouse closest to the distillery.
Inside the tasting/bar room at the end we tried some wonderful samples and my first taste of Ardnamurchan. It made an impression. It was youthful but so interesting. The sample of the core release we tried married together flavours I’d yet to encounter together in a whisky: Peaty popcorn with hints of dunnage. Mineralic notes with stewed fruits. Sea salt with marshmallows. It was a glimpse into what all the fuss was about.
In the warehouse there was an ex-Madeira cask sitting just outside the filling room. I asked if we could check it out, by which I meant I wanted to stick my head right in and have a good hearty sniff. The guide let each of us do so in turn and… oh my. Oaky charred dusty red fruits! My mind started racing. I wondered how many of these casks they had, if they had been filled yet, how limited of a release it would be, and when the release might be. Yet, I also had my doubts as to whether I’d even be able to snag a bottle, given the bottle scramble I’d been watching online.
Jump ahead a few months and by sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time, I got a bottle. When I popped the cork recently I thought back to that sunny July trip to the distillery and air-dunking my head with anticipation into an empty cask and thinking it was really something. Would the bottle live up to that promise?
Review
Ardnamurchan AD/10:22 Madeira Cask release, 2022, 58.2% ABV
£65 - sold out
The bottle tells us that this is one of 5781 bottles in this release, so fairly limited and it was “finished in 250 litre Madeira hogsheads.” There’s no mention how long the finish was, but considering the gorgeous hue, it appears to be substantial. Unfortunately, the QR code on the back of the bottle wasn’t working when I scanned it and other information found online states it’s a five-year maturation of un-peated spirit in first-fill ex-bourbon casks before a year-long finish in Madeira casks. Hopefully the good folks at Adelphi will get the blockchain gnomes working soon so we can get some official information and clarification.
Nose
That Ardnamurchan minerality and/or chalkiness, depending on your nose. Stewed fruits but with lots of dark red berries in the mix. Slightly perfumed. Orange zest in the background.
Palate
More expressive and deep than the nose anticipates. Caramel/treacle, caramel apple, orange zest. Again stewed dark red berries. Buttery with some biscuits drizzled in red-berry-flavoured caramel. Mineralic with dark honey.
This is delicious stuff, no doubt about it.
For strictly research purposes I tried this alongside a dram of the Cask Strength AD-02.22. With nearly the same ABV (58.2% for the Madeira and 58.7% on the AD/02.22) it’s a useful comparison for discerning the bourbon versus Madeira cask influence on the core signatures of the spirit. Nosing side-by-side, the peated cask strength yielded vanilla, lemon citrus, and ever-so-slightly burnt popcorn, while velvety red fruits rolled out of the glass on the Madeira. The slight chalkiness or minerality I often get in Ardnamurchan comes through a bit more prominently on the Madeira than on the cask strength, surprisingly, which speaks to the balance achieved here. With a few drops of water and 20 minutes or so, both of these open up considerably.
The Dregs
There’s something about going to a distillery and having a great experience that seems to cement our relationship with the liquid from that location. It’s seeing the place in the flesh, smelling the washbacks and mash tuns, walking through the warehouse with slumbering casks and talking with the people who work there. It’s also about the place. Experiencing a location can enhance our experience of the malt made there, even if the scientific links between place and actual taste remain debatable. Smelling the seawater of Loch Sunart that sunny week, climbing the local mountain to see the region from above – the coast, the trees, the peaks, the islands off the mainland – I think about all of this as I sip any Ardnamurchan now, and this Madeira cask release is no exception. I’m not saying I can taste the coast, the trees, or the rocks but having spent a little time exploring the place where this red-hued amber liquid is made and gently sleeps in a rugged hillside warehouse, it does add an extra dimension to my enjoyment of it - even if my brain is making it all up.
If you’re a fan of the distillery, you’ll probably already have a bottle or at least tried to get a bottle. Of the handful of Ardnamurchan expressions I’ve now tried, the Madeira cask release occupies a unique spot in the distillery’s line-up so far. It’s a different take on their cask strength offerings with a focus on a specific cask maturation. Yet it also clearly has the distillery signature you get in the excellent standard 46% release. The slight chalkiness, wet-pebbles-on-the-beach, and citrus fruit notes found in the standard cask strength releases is here but is now embedded and marinated in a red fruit wrapping that is impressively well-balanced. This is a finish in the best sense: neither spirit nor cask shoves each other out of the limelight. The balance that Ardnamurchan has struck here makes me wonder what other wine and sherry-finished spirits they currently have on the shores of Loch Sunart.
In January 2022 I was sceptical of the Ardnamurchan craze and I owned exactly zero bottles from the distillery. As of today, I have five bottles and I’m thoroughly enjoying each of them. I now find myself elbowing everyone else out the way for the latest special release, even though I recently patted myself on the back for giving up chasing bottles from other certain distilleries (which shall remain nameless but may or may not rhyme with Bringbank). If you haven’t tried Ardnamurchan yet, you really need to. Even if it isn’t this excellent Madeira cask release.
Score: 8/10 DD
Wally’s Review
Ardnamurchan AD/10:22 Madeira Cask release, 2022, 58.2% ABV£65 - sold out
Can we define “hype”?
In Drummond’s use of the word above we can contextually understand his meaning and its use here is clear, but we need to be careful. ‘Hype’ is contrived, promotional or artificial publicity where hyperbolic language and fanfare are employed, usually by invested parties. I don’t think that’s what’s happening with Ardnamurchan.
When a lot of uninvested people speak positively about something, to me, that’s not hype; that’s consensus. Sure, when everyone is saying the same thing it becomes dreary, or perhaps repetitive, but it shouldn’t diminish the message.
As Drummond has conveyed, what he interpreted as hype has turned out to be a refreshing consensus. And I can’t fathom a better example than this bottle to hammer home how Ardnamurchan remains top of the whisky excitement tree. Everything is good, but this one is a sit-up-and-pay-attention pour and one which shows the spirit is ready for pretty much any cask you want to throw at it.
See, that’s hyperbole. But I stand by it. Let’s get it out of the glass and onto the page.
Score: 7/10
Very good indeed.
TL;DR
A seasonal cracker. Happy to add to the ‘hype’
Nose
Cola cubes, menthol and figs. Soreen malt loaf and gingerbread. Maple syrup, cinnamon and macadamia nuts. This’ll be my fireside dram over Christmas; perfect for nosing during these chilly nights. Interestingly, a waft of freshly opened menthol cigarette box.
Palate
Sweet citrus and chilli on arrival, then a warm coating of that nutty maple syrup douses the heat. Some mandarin and red grapefruit switch up the citrus between lightly sweet and bitter before giving way to brown sugar, cinnamon and powdered ginger. The menthol is still hanging around on the finish too. Lovely, tongue-tingling, lip-smacking and moreish. Slightly drying too.
The Dregs
The only thing that detracts here, only a wee bit, and only occasionally, is the chilli heat. A dollop of water doesn’t tame it immediately, but time and water seem to work well. Yet, honestly, I still prefer it with the belt of tang and heat to make you focus on each sip. It’s alive and still utterly unctuous and coating. I think this is also their most ‘decadent’ release I’ve tried. It’s really a treat. I should be scoring this an 8/10 the way I’m speaking, but I’m sipping the Ardna Kool-Aid and loving it each and every new release and new year as it grows in confidence and maturity. Objectively, I think it’s still a very strong 7/10 and that gives it room to seduce us even more in future, as its youth and lively vigour slowly mellow. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s these whiskies that make me get all warm and fuzzy for the years ahead. At £65, they’re spoiling us.
It might be a great ploy too, because if enough of us shout about it they’ll never need to fork out for that glossy, costly marketing hype.
Score: 7/10 WMc
Pour me another and it’s an 8.
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DD
Image credits: Dougie Crystal
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