Ardmore 20yo & Glentauchers 14yo
Gordon & Macphail Distillery Labels Series | 46% ABV
A sign of times to come?
I’m sure you’ve heard the recent news, but if not, Gordon & MacPhail has decided to stop filling casks of new-make from various distilleries, effectively closing down the independent bottling portion of their business and instead focussing their efforts to produce whisky from their two distilleries.
Does this mean you should be stocking up on all the Gordon & MacPhail you can find? Far from the it. According to this 2022 data, Gordon & MacPhail have around 18,000 casks available for various indie releases. Given the fact I’ve yet to see anything younger than 10 years old from them and they stopped filling casks in 2023, we have several decades of whiskies to enjoy from this well-reputed and well-established bottler.
Cadenhead’s has also gone through some tribulations by closing their European branches. In Aqvavitae’s recent vPub, we learned these branches were essentially franchises from the Campbeltown-based independent bottler. As with most things, sound business practices and logic must balance the service that’s provided to customers. Cadenhead’s made the difficult decision to close these remote outposts and to refocus their efforts on providing high-quality independent releases direct to customers, who they were ultimately serving through these intermediaries.
Couple these two large signals from both bottlers with increasing prices and availability of casks to independent bottlers, and we might be in for some rough roads ahead within the indies.
But are these fears or concerns actually warranted? Perhaps. If you’re a dedicated and loyal customer to a particular indie, you might see your supply of whisky dry up. But if you’re willing to colour outside those lines, then there are a plethora of other choices out there. The trick will be to figure out which ones routinely release quality whiskies at the right price, but the well-established digital communities should help guide you, especially once you begin to trust and align with a particular group or person’s preferences and tastes. I know I’m not fretting things.
I’ve previously reviewed four G&M Connoisseur’s Choice single cask, cask strength releases and found them enjoyable in their own unique way. The Distillery Label range is unique within the indie landscape. Given Gordon & MacPhail’s long-standing business and reputation, several distilleries have granted them the rights to use some of their older label designs, thus creating that particular range. Generally, I’ve heard the Mortlach is quite good, far exceeding the official releases from Diageo. I haven’t found it yet but it wouldn’t take much to beat the official stuff in my opinion.
Glenburgie, Linkwood, Longmorn, Speymalt (Macallan) and Scapa Distillery Label whiskies have historically been available, on top of Ardmore and Glentauchers which we will be diving into today.
Review 1/2
Ardmore 20yo, Gordon & Macphail Distillery Labels, Distilled 2000, Bottled 2021, 46% ABV
CAD$150 (£88) paid, limited availability at £130
Nose
It’s beautifully muddled, something I sometimes encounter with older whiskies. Baked orange strudel, orange loaf with streusel strewn on top, dark toffee and dates. The Ardmore smoke comes across as a cold smoke, like the damp and cool smelling smoke used to smoke cheese or fish. Wonderful.
Palate
Old leather freshly rehydrated with orange Pledge. Dark toffee, brown sugar. On my first couple of sips, milk chocolate is present but eventually goes away. There’s a mild black pepper bite on my tongue and cheeks. Lovely light mainland peat smoke which has decomposed into a light damp wood dumped on to hot coals type of smoke with age. It pairs very well with the sweeter sherried notes.
The medium finish is lightly syrupy and has a nice interplay between sweet sherry and bitter (char, smoke) notes.
Matured in refill sherry hogsheads, this is my favourite Ardmore of all time. It’s that combination of light smoke, deft sherry sweetness and lots of age that makes me keep refilling my glass. I’ll be keeping an eye on local stocks, pouncing on a backup bottle when a sale or discount appears, especially considering the price discrepancy between Canadian and UK markets.
Score: 7/10
Review 2/2
Glentauchers 14yo, Gordon & Macphail Distillery Labels, Distilled 2007, Bottled 2021, 46% ABV
CAD$90 paid, limited availability at £70
Nose
Vanilla cream filling within cookies, cooked sweetened dates and fruit cup syrup. Touch of orange zest and milk chocolate rounds out the nose. It’s devoid of any prickle and presents as a nice easy smelling and refined nose. The aromas have significantly developed since I opened the bottle two months ago.
Palate
Cinnamon and nutmeg integrate with malty notes and sherry sweetness. Baked dates, brown sugar, light caramel sauce, dried apricots, and vanilla. The vanilla doesn’t come across as an independent note but rather like a supporting ingredient added to the more dominant notes. There’s a light touch of the Glentauchers signature pepperiness at the end. For me, it’s the perfect amount.
The finish is medium length with a lightly sticky mouthfeel. It’s sweet and pleasant, if a bit generic sherry with some booze-soaked raisins, like those extracted from a proper whisky-doused and fortified old school Christmas cake, and light brown sugar sweetness.
Matured entirely in refill sherry hogsheads, this Gordon & MacPhail Glentauchers is an excellent example of refill casks and time. You don’t always need an active cask finish to whack some flavour and colour into a whisky before bottling but rather time can work its magic. It’s not overly dominant in one aspect but is well-rounded and multi-dimensional.
Now how to score this? I’ll elaborate on the price vs. score below but I will say that this earns its score for the price I paid for this whisky.
Score: 7/10
The Dregs
You’ll notice I talked about the price vs. score ratio in both whiskies. I bought these at what I thought was a fair price for the specs. Then when I began putting words on paper, I checked the UK prices and my jaw dropped.
The prices were high especially considering the non-cask strength nature of these bottles. For the Ardmore, I began snooping around for other 21 year old single malts and I began to temper my feelings as they were much higher priced, with the exception of the 21 year old sherried Arran. So I guess it was me that was out of line and not Gordon & MacPhail’s prices.
With that sobering realisation in mind, I’ll be keeping my eye on purchasing a backup bottle of each if the prices are right, as it’s plausible the higher UK prices may trickle over driving my local prices up.
Tying a bow on the whole doom and gloom aspect of the future of independent bottlers, my own belief is things will always work out in the end. Yes, we might have some speed bumps and hairpin turns along the way but entire industries rarely completely fold up and disappear. We might see others gain some market share or have some price vs. quality hiccups but the malt whisky industry still needs the independent bottlers to provide intermediate cash flows and to present releases that may not fit their idea of their house profile.
For me, it’s still a good time to be a whiskyphile.
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. BB
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