Ardmore 24 year old 1985 SMWS 66.30

Speaking of SMWS......how about three SMWS Ardmores from three decades this week?

Since I know you're keeping track of every single post, you have obviously noticed I have been out of character, ignoring my Ardmore Fanboy #1 role, when reviewing actual Ardmores. I've given a grand total of ONE Ardmore a 90-point mark. Don't think that I have not noticed this. Though my parent brain has fully calcified, and I often have to pee in front of an audience, I have not shed my conjoined twin, Self Consciousness. Perhaps I have to review more Ardmores, or better Ardmores. Or maybe I should open up my closed hoarded imprisoned Ardmores. Meh. I'll just review more Ardmores.

I received this sample from the very generous Teemu of Whisky Science during a sample swap. That previous sentence was also used for this humbling Yoichi. He spoiled me.

Distillery: Ardmore (SMWS 66)
Ownership: Beam Suntory
Region: Highlands (Eastern)
Independent Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
'Quirky' name: An outdoor banquet
Age: 24 years (March 1985 - 2019)
Maturation: refill hogshead
Cask#: 66.30
Outturn: 244
Alcohol by Volume: 52.5%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
(from a sample swap)

NEAT
The nose begins with a nice unromantic combination of hay, ocean water, toasted grains and a hint of honey. A slight yeastiness then eases in, followed by notes of plaster and rosewater. After 30+ minutes white peaches roll in, followed by a fig confection. Its autumn palate offers hay, dried leaves, dried rose petals, soil and a slight bitter rootiness (or rooty bitterness). After a good long time in the glass, the whisky picks up a squeeze of lemon juice, sea salt and extra virgin olive oil. It finishes with salt, earth, soot and savory herbs. Little bits of flowers and olive oil in the background.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, < 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
Ah, the nose gains a whiff of that beach bonfire note I love so. More peaches and citrus as well, with hints of ash, fig and ocean in the back. The palate gets leaner. Salt, soot, tart off-season nectarines register first, followed by hints of flower kiss candy and horseradish. The finish actually sweetens, getting a bit floral, almost creamy. But sea salt and kelp keep things from getting too crazy.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Thanks to the extremely-refill hoggie and austere (oh that word) spirit, this Ardmore shows itself to be the opposite of a modern whisky. With its fruit and smoke, the nose offers up the most flair, while the palate never cracks a smile. That's okay, everything can't be "fun" and "delicious". We're all serious adults here. Joy is for silly people.

Also I like the palate, and the whole thing gets better with a little water. It almost gets me to Silly.

Availability - ???
Pricing - ???
Rating - 88 with water

Bowmore 14 year old 2004 SMWS 3.313 for Feis Ile 2019

I don't know when I bought into this bottle share, nor do I remember why. Unless an Ardmore or some old weird thing is offered, I don't chase after SMWS bottlings for reasons covered in this blog ad nauseum. But I apparently went in on this Feis Ile exclusive, and it probably wasn't cheap. That festival has inspired many humans to spend an unwise quantity of GBP/EUR to fetch a single bottle of exclusive whisky on the secondary market. If that quantity is X, then an SMWS Feis Ile whisky expenditure will be approximately 2X.

Anyway, this whisky is gorgeous.

Distillery: Bowmore
Owner: Beam Suntory
Region: Islay
Independent bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Age: 14 years (September 2004 to 2019)

Maturation: second-fill hogshead
Cask "name": Tempting trilogy of tastes
Cask number: 3.313
Outturn: 138 US bottles

Alcohol by Volume: 54.2%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT
Three layers to the nose. Mango, honey and honeydew on top. Juicy Fruit gum and cinnamon in the middle. Pumpernickel bread and grassy peat on the bottom. It gradually all fades out leaving only mango and honey behind. The palate is fruitier somehow. Grapefruit, papaya, lychee and a hint of that mango are all in the foreground. Minerals, earth and serrano peppers rumble beneath. The fruits glide slowly into a crisp tartness after 30 minutes. It finishes moderately sweet/tart with lychee, lemons, malt and a whiff of smoke.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose keeps all the neat fruits, adds some orange oil and dusts it all with baking spices. Similarly, the palate holds onto all the fruits, with the bright grapefruit being framed by chimney smoke and an herbal bitterness. It finishes with tart fruit, minerals and a hint of bitter smoke.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Kristen drank a third of this sample. Nothing I can say will top that approval. But I'll write a few more words, as I do. The fruity essences' intensity shows best in the palate as it meets and merges well with the darker notes, while the nose is so pretty that one can only thank and re-thank Bowmore for ditching this cask instead of burying it in an OB. Thanks again, Bowmore! Keep giving away the honey casks.

Availability - Sold out in primary market, secondary market though...
Pricing - originally $155, secondary price is a lllllllllot more
Rating - 90

Bowmore 17 year old 2002 Blackadder, cask 20199

After Monday's 1989 Bowmore, I thought I should review a more recent Blackadder Bowmore, one that some of you at home may have seen. Distilled during the very fine Bowmore era of 1999-2002 (specifically, 2002), the whisky was bottled just last year----

Oops, I should have offered a trigger warning there. Are you okay?

I'll try to keep my expectations under control, but I do adore ex-bourbon single casks of Bowmore from this period.

Distillery: Bowmore
Owner: Beam Suntory
Region: Islay
Independent Bottler: Blackadder
Range: Raw Cask
Age: 17 years (2002 to 15 October 2019)
Maturation: Hogshead
Cask number: 20199
Outturn: 308
Alcohol by Volume: 53.4%
(from a bottle split)

NEAT
The nose is a bit on the lean side. Some farmy smoke, pine needles and butter arrive first. Then, slowly, grapefruit, citronella candles and peach ice cream make their appearances. Time to use the "A" word. The austere palate starts off with stones, grains and pine needles. Bitter smoke rolls up into the midground. It's very salty and spirity, almost like a 7yo rather than a 17yo. The finish has more character than the palate, adding menthol and lemons to the bitter smoke.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose gains a nice seaside/harbor note to go with the grapefruits, lemons and dirty stones. The palate is "slightly" a lot of things, mostly in balance: slightly sharp, slightly peppery, slightly salty, slightly sweet and slightly bitter. That harbor note rolls after a while, adding some character. Again the finish proves to be more interesting, leaning heavier on the salt while adding a lychee candy note.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
While this is probably a technically flawless thing, with its lean style and great nose, I found the palate somewhat uninspired. Again. Could my expectations have influenced my experience? Or could the excellence of its sparring partner (arriving on Friday) have given me a different perspective than had I tried this whisky alone? For a more positive review, see that of My Annoying Opinions who reviewed the same whisky from the same bottle two weeks ago. He found more going on in the palate than I did, therein lies the difference in our scores.

Availability - Probably sold out
Pricing - ???
Rating - 85

Bowmore 21 year old 1989 Blackadder, cask 12861

It's been more than two years since I reviewed an independently bottled Bowmore. I shall end this blog's longest indie Bowmore drought ever with a trio of single casks this week, starting with one that was distilled at the end of the difficult Bowmore period, call it what you will. By the time the late '80s arrived, some of the more troubling distillate notes were in the past. I hope that's the case with this one. I'm cool with flowers blossoms, floral soap and floral perfume not so much.

Here's the data:

NEAT

So used to the bold peat on recent Bowmore indie casks, I am surprised by the mildness of the peat on this whisky's nose. Flowers and fruits read much louder: think cantaloupe, yellow plums and white nectarines. In the background, a quirky Loch Lomond-style funk merges well with a molasses note. The palate begins very hot and very sweet with some vegetal peat on the side. There's a mix of shouga sembei (Japanese ginger cookies) and mint candy up front, hints of caramel and cherry cola in the background. A new note develops after a while, a curious old-blend-like thing that I can only attempt to describe as ink, mold and paper. A sweet smoke appears in the finish, followed by charred veg and toasted oak spices.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or 1½ tsp per 30mL whisky

Quite some variety in the nose now. Vegetal peat smoke, lemon candy, carpet, leather and baby poop. The palate also meanders all over the place. At first it's a blend of candy canes, ginger cookies and peanut butter. Then there's this note, it tastes like I'm licking the label, and it sort of takes over everything. Luckily it doesn't carry too far into the finish, rather we're back to the mint, smoke and pepper.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Despite the whisky being quite hot at full power, I do not recommend diluting it to 46%abv because all cohesion is shattered and things start getting strange. And not in a fun way. When neat, the whisky seems to stay close to the spirit, with cask interference held to a minimum. As noted by Ganga in the comments section on my most recent FWP post, the floral notes here are (thankfully) of actual flower blossoms, not soap. And that prevents the nose from dropping to wacky bad from its wacky goodness. The neat palate is unmemorable aside from the inky, moldy note, and the finish is a bit plain and short. This cask is most notable for being a relatively successful Bowmore from this period, with the italics on "relatively".

Availability - Sold out
Pricing - ???
Rating - 83 (but keep it neat!)

Caol Ila 14 year old 2005 Chieftain's, cask 302361

I've been snooping around online and can find very little about this whisky. It's almost as if all the bottles were bought up and are now collecting dust in everyone's oh-my-god-a-new-thing cabinet. It's a 14 year old single cask Caol Ila that was actually released in America last year. Other than an occasional K&L conquest, this country doesn't get double-digit-aged single cask Caol Ilas on the reg anymore. Thank you, Ian MacLeod, for letting one escape across the Atlantic.

Distillery: Caol Ila
Region: Islay
Owner: Diageo
Independent Bottler: Ian McLeod
Range: Chieftain's
Age: 14 years (March 2005 - August 2019)
Maturation: Hogshead
Cask #: 302361
Bottles: 218
Alcohol by Volume: 55.9%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
(from a purchased sample)

NEAT
A flawless nose. Gosh, I miss Caol Ila. Anyway: seaweedy smoke, roasted almonds, Canadian bacon and hot tar. Brown sugar in the middle. Fresh apricots, yellow plums and apple skins in the background. Massive peat in the palate, like CI+. But it's not all peat. Tart apples, sweet apples, fennel, lime juice and horseradish hold steady in the smoke. Silky texture, too. It finishes with an excellent sweet/smoky balance. Then limes, salt, stones and horseradish.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or 1¼ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
How is it possible that the nose is peatier and stinkier? It's in the Ledaig/PC/Croftengea zone. Beyond the black smoke lies damp soil, mushrooms, plums and cherries. Bitter herbs and bitter cocoa lead the muscular palate, followed by horseradish and heavy smoke. But just as one starts to stagger from the wallop, sweet oranges rise up to tickle the palate. It finishes with earth, roots, herbs and oranges.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
A list of thoughts:

1. Awesome.
2. Y'all have been keeping this a secret from the rest of us, haven't you? Y'all.
3. The Ledaig/PC/Croftengea zone is a good place to be. If this isn't the peatiest Caol Ila I've ever had, it has to be in the top three.
4. Despite the whisky's youthful character, there are no mezcal notes, which I appreciate. At first it was fun to find mezcal notes in baby peated whiskies, but after the fourth or fifth time that note appeared I found myself just wanting some mezcal rather than underaged scotch.
5. This whisky's price was silly because of The Tariff, right?

Availability - Scarce
Pricing - $180-$190
Rating - 89

Glenburgie 16 year old 1998 Chieftain's, cask 5006 (my bottle)

This is the Glenburgie that got me into Glenburgie. Like Monday's Fettercairn, I tried this whisky during the previous Chieftain's blog blast almost five years ago. And like the Fettercairn I had enjoyed many pours of it preceding its review. While the Fettercairn brings power and complexity, this Glenburgie is a mellow drinker, due to both its ABV and style. This pour is from the upper third of the bottle below.

Distillery: Glenburgie
Region: Speyside (Moray)
Owners: Pernod Ricard
Independent Bottler: Ian McLeod
Range: Chieftain's
Age: 16 years (November 1998 - October 2015)
Maturation: Hogshead
Cask #: 5006
Bottles: 230
Alcohol by Volume: 46%
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Colorant? No
(from my bottle)

NEAT
The nose begins with barley, celery and loads of anise. It also shows some light grassiness and vegetable broth. Wasabi and Red Hots candy. The palate is malty malty malty. There's also kiwi juice and watermelon juice. Green grapes and mint leaves. Butterscotch and a slight mineral edge. Malt leads the finish as well, with little bits of watermelon, cantaloupe and a jalapeño bite.

I never add water to this, but what the hell.

DILUTED TO ~40%abv, or < 1 tsp of water per 30ml whisky
Hmmm. Funkier, muskier fruit appears in the nose, along with manuka honey. Sesame crunch and pickled ginger. The palate has become bitterer. Though there's more vanilla and butterscotch, the fruits hold strong: apricots, limes, sweet apples and roses (not a fruit). It finishes with roses, limes, a maraschino cherry and a hint of toasted oak.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Wow, maybe I should have been diluting this stuff the whole time. Though non-Western notes existed in the neat nose, at 40%abv it moves further East. I apologize for that sentence. Neat or diluted the palate is fruity, malty and concerningly easygoing. I try not to use the word "recommend" in this blog because this whisky shit is expensive, but if you can still find a bottle of this for $90 or less, it's not the worst thing to have.

Availability - Unsure. These could still be out there, somewhere.
Pricing - $90-$100 was its original price
Rating - 87

Braeval 23 year old 1996 Chieftain's, cask 111109

It's fair to say I'm a fan of bourbon cask Braevals. It's the summery honey and fruit style that gets me every time. If Pernod Ricard ever committed to a regular Braes range, it would probably become A Thing. For like five minutes. Despite this bottle's hefty price tag, I did consider blindly buying a bottle, instead I'll settle for a split.

Distillery: Braeval
Ownership: Pernod Ricard
Region: Speyside (Banffshire)
Independent Bottler: Ian McLeod
Range: Chieftain's
Age: 23 years old (July 1996 - August 2019)
Maturation: bourbon barrel
Cask number: 111109
Outturn: 209 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 53.1%
Chillfiltered? No
Colorant added? No
(from a bottle split)

NEAT
Orange creamsicles, rose blossoms, cloves, nutmeg and chocolate malt read loudest the nose, with hints of strawberry Bubble Yum and vanilla bean in the background. The palate starts off with malt, honey, sweet shisha and apricot jam. Lots of apricot jam. Then raspberries, yuzu and fruity cinnamon. Great tart/sweet balance. It finishes with honey, lemons, apricot jam, toasted grains and a hint of smoked vanilla bean.

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or < 1 tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose becomes even brighter! Lots of citrus peels, minty ice cream and brown sugar. A little bit of tapioca pudding, dunnage and that green plant which is still illegal in Ohio. And I don't mean broccoli. Or do I? Though the palate is full of peach ice cream, butterscotch pudding and fruity cinnamon it's not too sweet. There are some tart lemons, a gentle smokiness around the edges, maybe some nectarines in the back. The finish is all lemons, nectarines and butterscotch.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
I could drink this stuff all day, so it's probably a good thing I have only a sample of it. It would be a great summer pour. Or any season really. Though this Braeval delivers neither complexity nor the longest of finishes, I'd bet most Speyside distilleries would love to capture this style. Just radiant fruity fun.

Availability - As with the previous two Chieftain's, there are probably several bottles of this whisky on retailer shelves out there somewhere in America.
Pricing - $185-$225 (Can I wish this down to $125?)
Rating - 88