Whisky Discovery #109

SMWS 66.35 9 Year Old (58.2% abv, Single Cask)
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
Club bottling, not for general sale

SMWS 66.35

‘Savoury smoke and spicy sweetness’ 

The nose was a happy collision between savoury smoke and spicy sweetness – bacon frazzles, aniseed, clove, cardamom and spiced fruit and nuts. 

The palate seemed massive – intense smoke and flavours of tar, treacle, cough medicine and honey-glazed ham; also considerable sweetness, mineral notes and some herbal hints too – ‘absolutely amazing!’

We were led by the reduced nose to a barbeque – spiced pork belly, sweet and sour prawns and even barbecued bananas. 

The reduced palate displayed beautiful sweetness, reminiscent of liquorice allsorts and gummi bears, but still that dry, ashy smoke underpinned the whole delicious experience.

A smoky highlander from Kennethmont.

Drinking tip: For the great outdoors – especially wild places Well that's what it said on the label!

So what did I think?

Sam was determined to finish our palates off before we proceeded to explore the show and served us our second dram from another Speyside, but this time from the Ardmore distillery. Distilled on the 17th July 2002, it filled a refill sherry but and after nine years yielded 696 bottles.

I asked for something smoky, hoping for a peaty Islay, but Sam decided to steer me to this. I've not tried anything from Ardmore before, so it was a double first, and although not quite what I was expecting certainly lived up to it's label description with the aniseed and spiced fruit on the nose, and the smoky sweetness on the palate. A smashing second dram and there are still a few bottles of this left too at the time of writing this.