Exclusive Malts Ardmore 12yo
Creative Whisky Company 2013 Bottling | 56.3% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A beautiful Ardmore from the past won in my first auction experience.
Swimming in the big pool, finding a gem.
My experience as a whisky enthusiast has been, and continues to be, shaped by my location.
Were I to live in Scotland, I would be spoiled for choice of whisky items and experiences seemingly everywhere I turned: From the large number of distilleries in a concentrated area to the enormous range of bottles available. These are the things I read about on Dramface, view on YouTube and see on blogs and on the pages of whisky magazines.
I had a brief taste of that Scottish whisky immersion when my wife and I had a trip of a lifetime in October last year. It was glorious and I’m forever changed by my time in Scotland as a whole and the whisky memories are wonderful, visiting and touring those fascinating distilleries. The sweet, resinous, dirt and malty aroma of Bunnahabhain’s Warehouse No. 9 will never leave me. I remember fondly the many whisky shops we ventured into, meeting so many amazing people as well as seeing the variety of stock on the shelves.
I live in Connecticut and the whisky landscape is very different here. While whisky is woven into the fabric of Scottish life, that’s not the case here. As opposed to the single malt reality for an enthusiast in Scotland, the closest distilleries to me are roughly two hours away and there are only a few.
As for available bottles and expressions, we have what Casablanca’s Captain Renault would call “the usual suspects.” The usual Diageo and premiumised suspects are routinely on the shelves, but aside from that it’s the exception rather than the rule to find varied labels.
It takes a good amount of perseverance and reconnaissance to locate shops that carry a wider array of single malts. I’ve only seen Springbank at a large, nationwide retailer roughly an hour away from me, while the first time I saw an Ardnamurchan was two months ago. Finding a Ben Nevis, Glenturret or Glenwyvis is akin to finding sasquatch roaming the wilderness.
With that in mind, it’s sometimes difficult for me to relate to my Scottish friends’ frustrations created by whisky FOMO. Aside from the component of cost, I wonder how a Scot can have a fear of missing out on a single malt as they’re immersed in it.
So how do my Scottish fellow enthusiasts scratch that whisky itch and find something special or unique? They turn to online auctions.
Our Dramface writers’ chat is filled with stories of auctions, whiskies sought, whiskies that slipped through one’s fingers, and whiskies that were snared at good prices. Read through the Dramface reviews, and you’ll see a selection of great bottles picked up at auctions, including Wally’s Teaninich 17 year old, Arthur’s Haig Dimple 12 year old, and Dougie’s Whisky Broker Ardmore 10 year old.
For this Connecticut yankee, stories of online whisky auctions attract me like a moth to the flame. Online auctions sound intriguing, but on this side of the Atlantic, it’s not the same proposition. Whisky auctions, just as many things whisky-related, are somewhat foreign on my shores as opposed to what goes on in the UK. Looking through various UK-based online whisky auctions are fascinating and tantalising. That is until I looked at the bottom line. Have a successful bid? Great if you’re in the UK. However, if you’re across The Pond the shipping charges added to a successful bid are simply cost prohibitive.
I’ve tried finding whisky auctions here in the United States. Granted, my search hasn’t been a rigorous nor a daily endeavour – but every now and again I search to see if there’s a viable auction avenue for me. Over the past several months I found a number of them but the majority deal strictly with bourbon. I am in America after all, so not a huge surprise. No offence to Blanton’s, Pappy Van Winkle, et al, but it’s not what I am looking for.
I then stumbled across Unicorn Auctions - a Chicago-based outfit that sell all manner of wines and spirits, including single malts. Having found the site, I put on my swimming trunks and headed to the online auction waters to start swimming.
I dipped my toe into the online auction pool by first casually looking through a few auctions and perusing their lots. However, those first few all had large reserve figures - a minimum price the seller is looking for before a bottle can be bid on.
There were only a few bottles in my price range over those first few auctions and I was quickly outbid. It was an interesting experience even though I didn’t pick anything up. This was fine as I knew I was playing in the shallow end and getting acclimated to the water. Then, a month ago I saw there was an auction being held with all bottles up for grabs with no reserve prices. I have to admit I was a bit excited that this might be the first online auction in which I might score a bottle.
The day the auction opened, rather than just dip my toe in the water, I waded into the auction up to my waist and narrowed my search to single malts from Scotland, Japan and the United States. The vast majority were scotch and there was a nice spread of distilleries. After scanning the 80 or so bottles that popped up after my initial filtering, I dived in and put a few bids in on indie bottles of Ledaig, Dailuaine and Ardmore, along with a Springbank 12 cask strength. My offers were all low-ball numbers - for example, I bid $35 on that Springbank. Don’t laugh. Hope springs eternal for that gem to somehow fall between the cracks. This was early on and the auction bidding time spanned five more days. When I checked the site two days later, the Springbank 12 had exceeded $175, and one of my other three bids had also been erased by higher offers.
I knew how much I was willing to bid, but I also needed to be precise and fully understand Unicorn Auctions’ charges. In addition to the price of the bottle, a 15% buyer’s premium is charged as well as 10.25% Illinois state sales tax and a $19 delivery charge for one bottle. Knowing that, I set a budget and told myself I’d not submit a bid of more than $70 as this would mean a final charge to me of just over $100.
By the final day the Springbank was going for more than $200, and the Ledaig was north of $100. That left the Daluaine and the Ardmore. I’d never seen, let alone tasted either but I’ve read about both distilleries and both were on my bucket list. Game on.
On the final day of the auction, the Daluaine had a rival bid logged at $75, so sticking to my budget I let it go. However, my bid on the Ardmore was still in the lead. I logged off convinced someone would swoop in and outbid me in the waning minutes of bidding. No worries, I told myself. I’d stuck to my guns and was proud I hadn’t wavered. There would be other auctions.
The next morning I awoke to an email from Unicorn Auctions informing me that I was the successful bidder on the Ardmore. I was a bit stunned and more than a bit excited – I can see why there’s the draw to online auctions… this had been a bit of fun. Basking in the glow of my victory with a little adrenaline rush, I realised I ought to have a better understanding of the bottle I just purchased.
Searching for The Exclusive Malts brought little success, until I stumbled across a 2014 blog post from Maltfreak which stated: “The Exclusive Malts line comes from erstwhile whisky writer David Stirk’s Creative Whisky Company, which consistently bottles and sells superb single cask, cask strength single malt scotch whiskies.”
I felt pretty good about the bottle that was coming to me and felt even better after the bottle arrived.
Review
The Exclusive Malts - Ardmore, Distilled June 9, 2000 and bottled January 2013, Cask no. 801321, 1 of 272 bottles, NCF, Natural colour, 56.3% ABV
£55 paid, (£84 with taxes and fees) auction only
As I’d never had an Ardmore, I had no preconceived thoughts about what I was going to encounter. Looking at the liquid in the clear glass bottle, the first thing of note is the colour. It has the faintest of hue to it. Just barely a tinge of straw. Also, this bottle had been sitting on a shelf or stored in a basement for a decade. I say this not only as a function of seeing the layer of dust on the top of the box, but also noticing it had been distilled in 2000 and bottled in 2013. I was happy to finally release the genie from its bottle. Time to uncork.
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A beautiful Ardmore from the past won in my first auction experience.
Nose
An explosion of aromas and layers. Bacon salinity. Cardamom. Honey and malt. Butterscotch and a measured, sweet, savoury peat. Ginger and oolong tea. Lemon pith. Slight peppery tingle. Unique and inviting.
Palate
Beautiful mouthfeel. The warmth of the cask strength dram envelops and blends with that honey and cardamom combination. Ginger mellowed by slight citrus. That bacon salinity comes through with the richness of savoury and sweet peat I picked up on the nose. The kiss of savoury peat dances with sweet pineapple and buttered scones. A peppery tinge with hints of vanilla creme is accompanied by a slowly building tingle. The finish builds slowly to a warm and honeyed finish. It is like nothing I have ever had.
With a few drops of water, cardamom and ginger come forward beautifully and are not sharp. The honey and malt also are highlighted and the balance of the oolong tea, spice, and peat with the sweet and salty presentation is still there but is slightly more rounded and has a wider bandwidth. Fruitiness comes forward. With or without water, this dram is truly amazing.
As I have said in previous reviews, my standard of measure in determining if a bottle crosses over from a good bottle to a great bottle, is: “Does this make me stop and lose track of time?” You bet this Ardmore does. This is an amazing bottle of gorgeous liquid.
The Dregs
This bottle was a great and rewarding surprise: It was my first serious online whisky foray and I was shocked I won the lot from a distillery I had no prior experience of, from an independent bottler I’d never heard of before.
There’s something uniquely interesting and appealing about these auctions, especially in seeing and being able to buy whiskies I’d otherwise never see on local shelves.
When the bottle arrived, I noted an internet address for The Exclusive Malts on the accompanying box. I logged in the address into Google, but nothing appeared. The only recent item I could find about the viability of this independent bottler was from an article dated March 2023 from www.trulyedinburgh.com.
The article mentions the Robert Graham Whisky stores and their association with the brand, saying: “One thing that sets Robert Graham apart from other whisky retailers is their focus on promoting lesser-known distilleries and independent bottlers.
“They have their own range of bottlings under the label The Exclusive Malts, which includes single cask whiskies from distilleries throughout Scotland.”
All that said, I didn’t see any Exclusive Malts labels on their website or any other reference and my efforts to gather more information have been unsuccessful, though I suspect I might be looking in the wrong places.
But what I do have, for sure, is one of the best bottles of whisky I’ve ever had the pleasure to own. The harmony of so many different flavours is truly amazing. Clearly, this was a case of a blind squirrel finding a nut. I may never equal this kind of win through an online auction, but it’s a good way to start.
A word of caution: If your exploring online auctions, make sure you understand the associated charges and stick to your budget. Don’t let FOMO get the better of you and allow yourself to be financially stripped. This is all a bit of fun and even more so with an eye to see if you can snag a bargain.
If there are other US or Canada-based online auctions you’ve found to be reliably good resources, please let me know in the comments. I have some names but I’d very much like to know other options.
Aside from the curiously entertaining experience of the auction process, this is about the whisky in my glass. I’ve had my eyes opened to what an Ardmore is and can be when taken from the cask and naturally presented. Whatever bourbon cask was used – and I don’t know for sure, although my guess is a first-fill – it was a magic pairing with this distillate. I love this Ardmore. It’s great to find a gem and I’m very glad to share the experience.
Score: 8/10
Notes form the Editor: The Creative Whisky Company ran from 2004 until 2018 under the stewardship of David Stirk releasing many bottlings under The Exclusive Malts and The Exclusive Grain labels, as well as other series’ and specials. David Stirk recently released Independent Scotch; The History of Independent Bottlers, a must read for anyone interested in the recent dynamics in Scotch Whisky and Independent Bottling, as well as David’s own story.
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. OS
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