Ardmore 1998 DeDr

Ardmore often surprises with its variability of profile, the aroma is full of oriental spices, cloves, spicy red pepper, white root, turmeric, furniture varnish, basil, mint, white chocolate, the taste is less bright and multifaceted, baked apple with cinnamon in puff pastry, dark honey, bay leaf, the finish is long, slightly bitter, turning into nutty notes.

Got a mere 88 points. It failed to demonstrate such a long aging period. I suspect that around 20 years ago, the cask had already stopped exchanging flavor substances. It merely smoothed out the body a bit more, and the sherry barrel finish did not significantly enhance the flavor either.

One of the best whiskies I have ever tried.

Decadent Drams: "We don’t come across this style of Ardmore nearly often enough, which is probably why we fell for this one so quickly. A deeply old-school example that spent the vast majority of its life in a refill hogshead, before a gentle nudge from four final years in a 2nd fill sherry hogshead. No heavy-handed influence, just enough to round the edges and let the distillate speak in a properly nostalgic voice. It leans hard into that classic profile too, all drying peat smoke, waxes, pepper, mineral oils and a slightly tarry, medicinal edge that at times drifts into the territory of 1970s Ardbeg or, dare we say it, B***a. There’s hessian, camphor, aniseed and faint farmyard notes woven through a fat, textural palate, with a long, drying finish that hums with peat smoke and dried honey. We kept the label hyper-minimal for a reason, this is a quiet nod to those old, unfussy Ardmore bottlings of the past. A proper throwback, and one we really love."