Ardmore
- OWNER: BEAM SUNTORY
- FOUNDED: 1898
- REGION: HIGHLANDS
Ardmore was the brainchild of Adam Teacher, the son of the blending baron William Teacher, built to provide malt whisky for the Teacher’s Highland Cream blend. The distillery remains primarily a supplier for Beam Suntory’s various blends; though it has a capacity of 5.4 million liters a year, it has just one single malt expression available to American consumers.
Ardmore
Traditional Cask
A relatively young whisky, finished in quarter casks to speed up maturation, much like its Beam Suntory stablemate, Laphroaig Quarter Cask. Though no longer in production, it’s still relatively easy to find, and it has been repackaged (as Ardmore Tradition) for travel retail.
- PRICE $ · RATING NR
- AGE No age statement
- ALC/VOL 46%
- NOSE Cooked pineapple, honey, papaya, oak, slate, and ever, ever so slightly peated; it grows significantly more herbal with water, along with honey cake, grain, and oatmeal cookies.
- PALATE A thick mouthfeel that opens hot with pumpernickel, oak chips, soap, salt, and earthy peat; water simply underlines all of this. The finish is medium length, with chocolate and mint.
- GENERAL Tastes like a craft bourbon, and not a good one—hot and grainy, unformed, and overly oaked.
Legacy
Termed “lightly peated,” it’s made from a mix of 80-percent peated and 20-percent unpeated malted barley.
- PRICE $ · RATING
- AGE No age statement
- ALC/VOL 40%
- NOSE Bartlett pear, saccharine, baby vomit, minerality, lemon curd, brownies, and pencil shavings; water adds a bit of creaminess but otherwise ruins the nose.
- PALATE A thin mouthfeel with a lot of grain, lemon cake, vanilla, and a bit of campfire undernote, but not much character; water kills it. The finish dries a bit, with a touch of peat, toasted pumpkin seeds, and minerality.
- GENERAL Boring and thin—sweet and inoffensive.