The Ardnamurchan distillery sits at the most westerly point of mainland Scotland. The location is so remote that they say that there is only a single track road to the Argyll outcrop.
The distillery was built by Adelphi, an independent whisky bottling business, with construction completed and its stills started flowing in 2014. With it being a new venture and in such a remote location, sustainability and minimising its impact on the surrounding environment was key to its creation, with all power and heat coming from sustainable sources within a 2 mile radius of the distillery- hydro-power from the nearby Glenmore river, and wood chip from the surrounding sustainably managed Ardnamurchan Forest.
Since releasing its first whisky in 2017, the team have created numerous expressions and single cask releases to showcase the different directions that their cask profiles can take them (including a Mezcal-aged release!).
Gone are the signature numbers on the releases now in favour of simply “AD/“ for their core release (or “AD/CORE” on their site)
This signature offering features a 50:50 split of their peated and unpeated barley spirits, which have been aged across a combination of ex bourbon barrels (65%) and ex sherry casks (35%). The final spirit is bottled at 46.8% ABV at its natural colour and without chill-filtration, and is currently available around £45-50 GBP per 70cl bottle.
Nose
A pretty punchy start with barley sugars, cut apples, and lemon sherbet scents all vying for attention. A little stone fruit sweetness and fruitiness comes through and sits nicely with gentle peat notes and seaside salinity.
Taste
A silky delivery of barley sugars are the first flavours to arrive followed by a swift whoosh of heat and more sherbet-y tingly sensations. There’s quite a grassy profile to this, with those core barley ingredients standing out with the casks’ vanilla influence. Orchard fruits and an earthy peat note start to take over once the heat subsides.
Finish
Those main two flavours of barley and fruity sugars melt away with the heat of the alcohol. The peat smoke only seems to reappear when you breathe after taking that last sip.
Verdict
A satisfying drop from start to finish. It makes sense that a core release would emphasise its key spirit profile and it achieves that with the distinct malted barley and gentle fruit flavours appearing throughout the nose, taste, and finish.
The peat level is interesting as this whisky’s base is 50% peated spirit, but it never really dominates or stands out. Not as much as I thought it would after reading that’s it half of the final spirit. Maybe there’s a lower ppm on the malted barley itself. Whatever the explanation, the peat smoke notes remain subtle on the smoky, salinity, and earthy fronts and just sit nicely alongside the malt and fruit flavours.
Ardnahoe – similar name and similar story that it’s an independent bottler who have graduated (if that’s the right word) to distilling their own spirit for their own single malt creations.
This was received as part of a cool miniature set which showcases this core releases alongside a Sherry cask release, a rum cask release, and a Sauternes cask release. The packaging and story wrapped around the whisky looks great and aligns with their sustainability message. As a non-Scot, I do always appreciate an explanation on how to pronounce Gaelic names, with this being “Ard-na-murr-kan” (not a “chun” sound at the end).
All-in-all a nice example of a clean and classic single malt and a representation of the underlying whisky that sits beneath their myriad of releases, and now to see where these casks can take this…
M
Dram disclosure: This sample was part of an Ardnamurchan gift set, very gratefully received as a part of birthday celebrations from work. All notes are intended as an honest, fair, and independent review of the whisky, and not as a promotion. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.
whisky unplugged 
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