With how much I enjoyed doing a side by side review of sister casks to mark review #200, I decided to do the same for every milestone review. Based on the amount of sister casks pairs I have from the SMWS, I settled on doing that for every 25th review (with a more significant one for 250) except when one of those milestones would happen to fall during an Advent calendar. So here for #225 are a pair of Ardmores with similar maturations, but one for an additional year with a specification of the previous contents of the finishing cask.
Ardmore 13, 2006 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 66.162, Highland Single Malt, 60.8% ABV
Minutia: Distilled on March 9, 2006 and matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead for 12 years before transfer to a 2nd fill French oak barrique for the duration yielding 286 bottles. This is part of the Lightly Peated flavor profile named “A true harmony of flavours”. This was released to celebrate the highlands as part of their digital regional festivals of 2020 (or at least tagged as such while not actually featuring the festival label). Enjoyed neat in a glencairn side by side with its sister cask 66.176.
Color: Old gold amber, 0.6.5.
Nose: Smoke, putty, grass/hay.
Taste: Fruit, spice and banana, smoked meats.
Finish: Funky smoke, custard. Medium.
This is quite nice. Something interesting noted particularly during this review of these two whiskies is how different of an experience it is when sitting down and focusing on a review versus any of the drams enjoyed prior to the actual review. It’s hard to say which I like more, actually. I did not take specific notes about water. I did not care for it and do not feel this needs or benefits from it at all.
Score: 81
Musical Evocation: Iron Maiden – “Dream of Mirrors”
Ardmore 14, 2006 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 66.176, Highland Single Malt, 60.1% ABV
Minutia: Distilled on March 9, 2006 and matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead for 12 years before transfer to a 2nd fill red wine barrique for the duration yielding 264 bottles. This is part of the Lightly Peated flavor profile named “Je suis bûcheron et je vais bien”, a French name which in English means “I am a lumberjack and I am fine”. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn with its sister cask 66.162.
Color: Old gold amber, 0.6.5.
Nose: Industrial, beachy smoke. Dried stone fruit. Buttered popcorn on a later visit to the nose, and in a big way.
Taste: Molasses, light spice. Earthy.
Finish: Very similar to the taste, with the molasses being a bit more caramely and the spice feeling more like spiced red fruit.
Another good one, and a bit more interesting. Time in the glass works well for this one, it seems. As with the other, I did not take specific notes with water as I felt it didn’t add at all and I prefer it without on all counts.
Score: 81
Musical Evocation Iron Maiden – “Brave New World”
They got the same score, and it makes sense as I can’t really tell which I like more despite them being quite different yet broadly very similar. Anyway, this was an interesting foray into non-Islay/island peat, the only other Ardmore before these being the one bottled for r/Scotch a couple years ago.
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