Ardmore

Region: Highland

Owner: Beam Suntory

Founded: 1898

Given that Ardmore makes up 35% of the Teachers blend, there isn’t an extensive range of distillery releases, in fact at the time of writing (2018), there is only one non travel retail bottling, the Legacy, which is chill filtered and bottled at 40% and frankly doesn’t do the distillery any justice at all!

I personally believe that Ardmore is a very underappreciated distillery, which is probably down to its lack of exposure, but it appears quite frequently in the lists of independent bottling companies. The distillery is pretty consistent in the quality of its output, which puts it in a fairly small, select group, ok, so one or two bottlings have been a bit simple, but I have no issue with the quality. I have yet to come across a seriously old bottling of Ardmore, probably because it drinks rather well at a young age.

For a long time, the distillery was one of the few in the region that produced a peated spirit, which is in the 12-14 PPM range, although sometimes it can come across a little heavier on the peat and can vary from having a fairly dry peat character to having a sweet peat demeanor. One of the things I love about this distilleries spirit is its balance, and yes, I do go on about balance a lot. I love the balance between its peat and its almost floral, sometimes appley or Sauvignon Blancy white fruit. This is apparently down to the ‘powers that be’ demanding a very clear wort, which when combined with a reasonably long fermentation of 54 hours, in wooden washbacks, gives it a good fruity base to build on. The spirit stills feature kinky steam coils, and yes, I mean that the steam coil was deliberately bent! C’mon people, please! Heads out of the gutter! This isn’t fifty shades of Ardmore! This kink was done when the original coal fires that heated the stills were replaced in order to recreate the hot spots that a non-regular flame would produce and apparently this adds weight to the spirit. Either way, like I said, Ardmore spirit is generally very well balanced.

(Image Copyright James Mortimer Photography)