Description
Ardmore (Small Batch Release) 15 Year Old
Independently bottled by Our Sommelier Ltd, under the whisky label ‘Lolaire’.
Distillery: Ardmore
Region: Highland, Scotland
Estimated Bottling Date: After 16.12.2024
Age: 15 Years
This Bottle Purchase: 1 x 70cl
ABV: cask strength of 56.56%
Cask to Bottle outturn: 50 bottles
Bottles Pre-Ordered & Not Available: #01, #08
Cask type: Re-casked 50L Sherry Firkin on December 2022
Bottle: Crystal Decanter
Packaging: Luxury
Ardmore Tasting Notes: Last tasted on 17th November 2023
Nose: Revel in a richness accentuated by caramel undertones. The toasted oak takes center stage, offering a lavish experience, with a subtle yet assertive hint of peat.
Palate: Encounter abundant barley and cereal nuances. Luscious bourbon flavors intertwine with lingering smoke and subtle peat, creating a delightful dance between caramel sweetness and oak infused with vanilla spice.
Finish: The experience concludes with a pronounced sharpness, followed by more caramel sweetness and sugary barley notes. A velvety lanolin smoothness emerges, accompanied by a gradual waning of smoke.
All complemented by subtle, mellow Christmas cake flavors from the sherry firkins.
About the distillery:
In 1898, Adam Teacher, son of Glasgow blender William Teacher, decided the family business needed its own malt whisky distillery. He chose a site on the outskirts of Kennethmont in rural Aberdeenshire, on land owned by family friend Col. Leith-Hay, whose Leith Hall is open to the public. The location had access to water, nearby peat, and barley-growing surroundings. Crucially, the Inverness-Aberdeen railway ran alongside, allowing Teacher to add a branch line for transporting casks and whisky.
Ardmore has been part of the Teacher’s portfolio ever since, contributing smoke and top notes to a blend that still sells over a million cases worldwide, with India and Brazil as main markets. The original stills were doubled in 1955 and again in 1974. In 1976, it joined the Allied Distillers group, the same year its Saladin maltings stopped operating. Its stills remained coal-fed until 2001.
When Allied was broken up in 2006, Teacher’s, Ardmore, and Laphroaig were acquired by Beam, later becoming part of Beam Suntory in 2014.
Ardmore’s role in blending has meant it rarely appears as a single malt. A quarter cask-finished bottling was released a few years after Laphroaig Quarter Cask but remained limited in scale.
However, it has gained a small yet dedicated following among single malt enthusiasts who seek out independent bottlings, especially those from Gordon & MacPhail and Signatory Vintage.
Highland Region:
Highland is the greatest of all whisky regions and provides a huge variety of different flavours and characters. It goes from the lighter whiskies all the way through salty coastal malts. While malts from the West Highland distilleries tend to have a sweet start and dryish finish, the far North Highland malts character are greatly influenced by the local soil and the coastal location of the distilleries giving light bodied whiskies with a spicy character and a dryish finish, sometimes with a trace of saltiness. Central, Southern and Eastern Highland malt whiskies are generally quite a mixed bunch. Fruity and sweet. They are lighter bodied with a tendency to have a dry finish.
Delivery charges are based on weight, the number of bottles, and calculated on Check Out.
