Ardnamurchan 5 year old Golden Promise barley (2024)

Though my take on this whisky differs from that of Dramface (the only other write-up I've found about this, or a similar, Ardnamurchan), I highly recommend reading through his quotes about the Golden Promise barley strain. Golden Promise was once beloved for the texture and flavor it produced through brewing and distillation, but corporations were not fond of it due to the strain's low alcohol yield and susceptibility to mildew. Legend has it that Golden Promise was behind the high quality of specific single malts in decades past (picture Macallan's golden years). Whether Golden Promise was the secret or not, I always appreciate when whisky distilleries play with barley and/or yeast strains.

Brought back from the Scottish holy land by Doctors Springbank (thank you, folks!), is this sample of a sherry-octave-aged Ardnamurchan 5 year old that used only Golden Promise in its production.

Distillery: Ardnamurchan
Owner: Adelphi

Region: Way Out West Highlands

Age: minimum 5 years old (2018 or 2019 - 2024)

Maturation: Oloroso octave

Outturn: ???
Alcohol by Volume: 57.4%
Chillfiltration? No
Colorant? No

NEAT

Big nose here. Butterscotch, toffee, toasted oak, and massive amount of vanilla shout the loudest. Root beer barrel candies and cardamom fill the middle, while perfume floats in the background. The palate begins like liquid oak spice. Then there's some toffee, golden syrup, and hints of savoriness and peppery smoke. Some Signet-esque chocolate malt materializes later on. But it's mostly small cask insanity. The drying finish is mostly golden syrup with baking spices and a hint of that chocolate malt.

DILUTED to ~40%abv, or >2½tsp of water per 30mL whisky

I added more water than usual to this pour in an attempt to break through the oak. Indeed the oak is quieter on the nose, and a barley note arises. There's less vanilla, more maple syrup. Butterscotch and toasted almonds, with those root beer barrel candies in the back. The sweet, silky palate starts with vanilla and almond extracts, as well as a malty touch. Bitterness and florals float around the edges. It finishes floral, tart, and peppery with a dash of vanilla.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Diluted is the way to go on this one, for me. Even then, none of it is really in balance, but it's not bad. I don't understand why they put such a unique spirit into a tiny, heavily sherried cask, but Adelphi does love its extra sherried bottlings. Despite the oak mostly overwhelming the barley, the drink is always entertaining. Sadly the octave outturn was tiny, so the release likely sold out quickly, but it is a 2024 bottling so I think I get points for that.

Availability - Nope.
Pricing - 70GBP, maybe?

Rating - 82 (diluted only)

Ardnamurchan Sherry Cask 2023

As theorized in my review of Ardnamurchan AD 2018, it's possible that the "outsized premium" on each of Adelphi's bottlings from the past decade has gone towards subsidizing the construction and upkeep of this Western Highlands distillery. That's nobler and less exploitative than the general "let's wring every last dollar from every apparently-expendable member of our customer base" approach of many other independent and official bottlers. Did I just call Adelphi "noble"? I probably should have written this review while sober.

Anyhoo, here's something about Ardnamuchan's 2023 Sherry Cask release.

Distillery: Ardnamurchan
Owner: Adelphi

Region: Way Out West Highlands

Age: NAS

Maturation: Oloroso and PX sherry casks

Bottling Date: 2023

Outturn: 13,998 bottles
Alcohol by Volume: 50%
Chillfiltration? No
Colorant? No
(thank you to Doctors Springbank for the sample!)

NOTES

Something sulphuric and cheesy shows up in the nose for the first few moments. It fades away, revealing dried apricots, toasted almond, and toasted coconut. A little bit of moss and maple syrup join dried cherries and currant juice.

The palate is earthy, savory, sweet, grassy, and vegetal for the first 15 minutes. It gets sweeter as it picks up orange candy and dates.

The peat appears in the finish. There's smoked peanuts, earthy residue, and a hint of lapsang souchong, while minty candy and dates offer brightness.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Though this whisky is supposed to be only 5-ish years old, it's the most complete Ardnamurchan single malt I've tried so far. Much that has to do with the casks, but this isn't a one-dimensional sherried blast. It has edges, curves, and straight lines. (I just wrote that.) Hell, it's an actual whisky at 5-ish years old. Not many distilleries offer that.

Availability - Europe
Pricing - $70-$110

Rating - 84

Ardnamurchan AD/03.21:02

The first time Ardnamurchan appeared on this site, its product wasn't even a legal whisky, rather a wild, weird 1-year-old spirit. Adelphi's distillery now makes actual single malts, more than 80 of them as per Whiskybase, one of which has hit the 10-year-old mark this year. Scotland's most westerly distillery produces peated and unpeated spirit with a variety of fermentation times (72-120 hours), usually using Concerto barley.

Today's drink is an actual whisky, a single malt, that mixes the peated and unpeated spirits, as well as bourbon and sherry casks. The numbers stand for the bottling date (03.21 = March 2021) and the batch number (02) for the year.

Distillery: Ardnamurchan
Owner: Adelphi

Region: Way Out West Highlands

Age: NAS

Maturation: 65% bourbon casks, 35% sherry (oloroso and PX) casks

Bottling Date: March 2021
Alcohol by Volume: 46.8%
Chillfiltration? No
Colorant? No
(thank you to Doctors Springbank for the sample!)

NOTES

"Young" isn't a great tasting note, so I'll try to provide specifics. The nose is yeasty and floral, with bubblegum and Play-Doh notes. Cinnamon sticks and sour apple candy fill out the middleground, and a pretty white peach note awaits in the back. It gets more perfumed with time.

The palate is very sweet, with lumber, vanilla, yeast, and almond extract. Most of those notes fall away after 30+ minutes, leaving behind a raw, floral eau de vie.

It finishes like a flower blossom and cinnamon stick infused simple syrup.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

While this is a considerable improvement over the 2018 AD spirit, it still has a Craft whisky palate. The delightful nose, though, shows lots of promise. I'm not sure of its age, but if it's 3-4 years old at this point, then it should be quite a thing at 10+ years. Then again, that's just a guess, because no two spirits act the same, and every Master Distiller/Blender/Executive has a mind of their own. Good luck, Adelphi.

Two more Ardnamurchans to follow...

Availability - It's still around, 3 years later
Pricing - $65-$75

Rating - 77

Ardnamurchan 2018 AD

The first two whiskies this week were distilled by companies better known for their independent bottling of other producers' single malts. On Monday it was Wemyss, today it's Adelphi.

Ardnamurchan Distillery began distilling in 2014, but has yet to release something old enough to be called 'whisky'. Instead they squeezed out 1 year old spirit bottlings in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Their site says they aim to release their first single malt in 2021. That means they're either struggling to get things right at 3 years, or they're (gasp!) waiting to bottle something older. I hope it's the latter.

Considerable effort has been made to keep this side of the company more modern than most. Their handsome bottle design includes some blockchain-QR tech, which allows them to track every bottle and deliver more narratives to customers. Meanwhile, the distillery is powered by local renewables and their byproducts are reused locally.

This West Highlands distillery produces non-peated and peated (30ppm at malting) malt, using Concerto barley. Like Kingsbarns, they're keeping things small with a capacity under a half-million liters per year.

Now that all these facts are behind us, it's time for some hot takes!

Distillery: Ardnamurchan
Owner: Adelphi

Region: Way Out There (Highlands)

Age: the youngest stuff is said to be 1 year old

Maturation: 1st fill sherry casks

Bottling Date: 2018
Alcohol by Volume: 55.3%
Chillfiltration? No
Colorant? No
(from a purchased sample)

NEAT
An absolute whompin' of sherry cask influence on the nose: dried berries, cocoa and a hefty meatiness. There's also a mix of honey mustard, watermelon candy, mint, peat smoke and metal. The palate starts out with a brushfire character that's reminiscent of Balcones Brimstone. Lots of mesquite smoke and ham and soil. Beneath that is thyme, cinnamon, honey and salted nuts. The drying finish is mostly heat and smoke, with a large dose of salty peat.

What happens when we cool it down?

DILUTED TO ~46%abv, or 1¼ tsp of water per 30mL whisky
The nose gets funkier with bigger peat and honey and black raisins. Burning plastic siding. It's beginning to shift from Brimstone to Leviathan II. The palate is much sweeter and bitterer now. Leafy peat, cinnamon and nuts float in a simple syrup. The finish's bitter and earthy notes are swallowed up by a sugar flood.

WORDS WORDS WORDS
Without dilution it's Brimstone, with dilution it's Leviathan II. With those two products struggling to be unique whiskies rather than stunts, and often losing that battle, it's not the best company for a new scotch to be in. I think Ardnamurchan 2018 AD comes out ahead of those two, but just barely.

The issue isn't the raw aggressive peat character, rather it's the blanket of overactive casks and a blinding sweetness. These elements clash with the earth, leaves, bitterness and plastic smoke, leaving one wondering what the spirit would actually be like if left alone.

I'm assuming Adelphi released this spirit drink for revenue purposes and to fuel the brand ahead of time. Once it sells through — and it will because it's New — it'll gross around €250K. The company is also likely utilizing the outsized premium they charge for their independent bottlings of other distilleries' whiskies, like €155 for 5 year old blended malt, €200 for 7 year old whisky and nearly €300 for 14 year old single malt to keep the distillery's lights on. That's certainly one way to crowdsource.

Availability - Many European specialty whisky retailers
Pricing - €65-€90 (w/VAT)
Rating - 70 (neat only)