I’d thought to do another week of Irish whiskey reviews but after the way last week’s Teeling series worked out (here, here and here), I’m a little bit wary. Let’s wait another week. In the meantime, this week I have for you reviews of three Ardmores bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society a few years ago. They’re all 23 years old, all distilled on the same day in 1997 and bottled in 2021. They are also therefore adjacent casks in SMWS’ esoteric cask numbering system. Ardmore is distillery 66 in their system and these are casks 195, 198 and 199. I’ve previously reviewed 66.197, which was also distilled on the same day as these three; indeed, as per Whiskybase, they’ve released nine such casks. I really liked 66.197, which had been finished in a refill Spanish oak sherry hogshead. I’ll begin this week’s series with 66.198 which spent 21 years in a bourbon hogshead and then also received a finish or second maturation (at 2 years it doesn’t really seem like a “finish”) but this time in a refill French oak barrique. Would that have made the previous contents of that cask wine of some kind or cognac? I don’t know. I do know that the SMWS gave this the name “Serene sunset satisfaction”. Let’s see what it’s like.
Ardmore 23, 1997 (53.1%; SMWS 66.198; bourbon hogshead + French oak barrique; from a bottle split)
Nose: Mild wood smoke mixed in with sweeter notes of apple juice, mead and barley; some wet wool and lemon behind it all. The sweeter notes come to the fore as it sits but it all seems a bit muted. With more time there’s some cream and some berries—works quite well with the smoke, which gets more mineral as well. Water emphasizes the cream and brings out some savoury notes as well (pork fat).
Palate: Comes in as indicated by the nose. Very approachable at full strength; rich texture. On the second sip it’s the more austere notes that take the lead: wet wool, mineral oil. With time it gets sweeter here as well even as oily lemon peel comes to the fore. With a few drops of water the lemon melds with pepper and the wet wool.
Finish: Long. The smoke starts to expand quite a few beats after I swallow and picks up a fair bit of pepper. Develops as on the palate with time and water.
Comments: Fairly austere at first but it opens up nicely with air and water. I would have liked a little more fruit but this is pretty good as is.
Rating: 88 points.