Ardmore 20 (2017) Review

Hi everyone,

There aren’t that many official Ardmore bottlings really. Traditional was discontinued, replaced with Legacy. And there’s the 12yo Portwood. But no others come to mind.

And then this one came out of nowhere, at a sensible strength and an even more sensible price! I was shocked. So shocked I almost bought one. Especially as Ardmore has become a distillery on my watchlist and that this would have been produced on their direct fired stills as it’s pre-2001.

Anyway, finding myself at Inter. Whisky Frankfurt with a tonne of awesome whiskies ahead, I tried this first thing.

 

Ardmore 20 (2017) 49.3%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Full

Nose: Sooty and smoky, oily, Campbeltown-esque, some seaweed, lemon and white grapefruit citrus, waxy vanilla. Soft minerality and some funk after time.

Taste: Sweet start, orange peel, then intense citrus and smoke combo, white grapefruit again, gingerbread and ginger biscuit.

Finish: Long length. More of that white grapefruit and ginger beer.

Matured in Bourbon barrels and Laphroaig quarter casks. A little spicy mid-palate but the white grapefruit is unique, not sure I’ve tasted that in a whisky before. Very nice stuff and a great price for a 20yo, only £60 in some places.

81/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #555

Whisky Network Review #650

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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