Ardmore GM Reserve - distilled 1997 - bottled 2012
from a refill sherry hogshead no. 900665 that yield 298 bottles - 59,0%
distillation date: 21/08/1997 - bottling month: september 2012
scores
whiskybase – 86/37 wb36208
malt maniacs - no score
serge valentin - 87 (see below)
Ardmore 15 yo 1997/2012 (59%, Gordon & MacPhail Reserve, for Van Wees, 298 bottles)
This one should send wood, as we say in French. Meaning that it might be a face-melter… Colour: white wine. Nose: aaah! Carbon, supermarket plastic pouch (now streng verboten over here), ink, new magazine, cow dung, and a large plate full of various cheeses. Comté, Cantal, proper Cheddar – should that still exist… Some action, at last! With water: extreme smoky grassiness. As if someone had burned some green tea – but I’m asking you, who would do that? Mouth (neat): perfect, gives you faith in lovely Ardmore. Lemon juice, ink, smoked ham, bitter herb juices, green pepper… it is actually very extreme, but it would get you up! With water: works this time. Green melons, lime, lemon, pomelos, all that been properly smoked using beech and grass. And perhaps dried kelp, on a remote beach. Finish: very long, green austere, grassy, and extremely unsexy. Which, precisely, makes it very sexy. Go figure… Comments: some mad very grassy malt whisky that no sane distiller would ever launch on the market. Well, not to-day. Punk whisky, shall we say? Very rock and roll for sure…
SGP:374 - 87 points.