Full confession: retail therapy is helping me get through a challenging summer, and my Billy is feeling the brunt. Below are three of its latest additions.
Ardnahoe 5 Year Old, 50%
Needs, must: newly birthed whiskies are a dime a dozen at the moment, but this is Islay, Scotland’s most iconic whisky region, and this bottle represents but the second time the island has seen an inaugural release since Alfred Barnard visited in 1885. It’s an Easter egg that makes this Ardnahoe one for the history books, exciting times if you’re a whisky stan, even more so when you see such a newcomer put on its Big Boy pants and declare itself a full five years of age. All this (plus reduced shipping, with just one more bottle) conspired to have me click ‘Buy’ without thought or hesitation when the opportunity came knocking online.
Not to mention there’s always the quiet satisfaction of being first as I described with The Hearach. Does being first even count if you have yet to open the bottle? Probably not, but palates more eager than mine have already heralded this a great success so I reserve the right to feel chuffed with my purchase, as I take my time in admiring the geometric design cues of Ardnahoe’s sleek packaging, and its embossed bottle that says classy without awkwardly screaming ‘luxe’ in these fiscally sensitive times.
But as the drill sergeant says, it’s what in the bottle that counts, and on paper this ticks all the connoisseur fetishes — no colour, no chill filtration and geek proofed at 50% abv — all the while including a measure of ex-Oloroso casks, the requisite ‘dosage’ that ensures a whisky’s amber hue and the rounded sweetness that is nigh essential when you’re looking to sell a limited edition rumoured to be 70,000 bottles.
And that age statement though! Full credit to The Founder Stewart Laing for eschewing the temptations of indecent haste that see so many new distillers bottling their whisky at three years plus a day, though perhaps the inconvenience of a global pandemic might have had a hand in the timing; dram for thought. Regardless, here we have a proper 5-year age statement on an inaugural single malt Scotch whisky. Barnard would be proud!
Ardnamurchan AD/08:18 Cask 1062
Exclusively Bottled for The George Hotel, 57.8%
We thoroughly enjoyed our all-too-brief visit to The George Hotel earlier in the year, so I was all in when I heard that they'd bottled their own cask of Ardnamurchan this past May. They know their drams here, but it was the warmth and unbridled passion of their resident whisky somm that charmed me, so much so that I was happy to roll the dice upon learning that Ivan had a hand in selecting this cask (not to mention that the chief palate at Royal Mile Whiskies had also given this Ardna his seal of approval.)
This is also the first Ardnamurchan I've seen bottled from a distillation of Golden Promise™ barley, several casks of which we noticed in their warehouses on a tour the week before we visited The George. Longtime whisky fans might recall that once-upon-a-time Macallan boasted of their devotion to using Golden Promise™ barley (along with the USP of using nothing but the finest sherry casks from Jerez de la yada yada...) I can even recall being shown a field planted next to Easter Elchies House when we first visited Macallan in 2004; one wonders if it survived the latest renovations?
As a varietal Golden Promise™ fell out of favour in the 80s and was eventually supplanted by hardier strains less susceptible to rot and yielding more alcohol, so is now classed as a heritage varietal for which elite brewers and distillers pay a premium, Ardnamurchan included.
Doubtless taking a page from Macallan, most of the Golden Promise™ casks we spied seemed to be ex-sherry, including the octave available for hand bottling in the visitor’s centre. That said, I like my sherry casks on the larger size (big butts, bigger heart) so I’m fine to have missed out on the distillery exclusive in favour of this unpeated George exclusive, bottled from a proper first fill Oloroso sherry butt made of Spanish oak — mic drop!
An Buachaill Caol Dubh aka ’The Dark Slender Boy’, 65%
Irish Poitín Exclusive Bottling for the Créatúr
I’m smitten by Fíonnán O’Connor, author and historian, and find his passion for the craft, culture and heritage of whiskey making to be both unrivaled and contagious.
His latest book project is Créatúr, a deep dive into the roots of Irish whiskey, and I was quick to join the circle of crowdfunders enabling Finn’s travels across Ireland, Europe and further afield as he unearths the medieval manuscripts, distillery blueprints and household journals that make up Irish whiskey’s origin story.
And membership has its privileges: as a Créatúr supporter part of my geek out includes a share in a cask of pure potstill whiskey that was distilled from a mashbill Fionnán discovered in Ireland’s National Library during the course of his PhD (the result of which is currently maturing in an ex-Oloroso cask at Boann Distillery.) I’m also privy to exclusive Créatúr tastings and online masterclasses led by Fíonnan (a scholar and whiskey geek who truly personifies the Irish ‘gift of gab’) as well as the opportunity to purchase the results of the spirited research distilled along his journey.
The Dark Slender Boy is the first of these trial runs, a poitín distilled from a mashbill of sugar, molasses, grated apples, and boiled potatoes (with the skins left on) all measured by the stone. It’s an old moonshiner’s recipe that Fionnán came across during archival research, brought to life by Brendan Carty using the direct fired stills at Killowen Distillery, where he and a self described ‘rogue’s gallery’ have set up camp and dedicate themselves to reviving lost traditions in Irish distilling.
Like everything from Killowen this is as uncommercial as whiskey gets, yet surprisingly palatable to taste, though truthfully I far prefer the Bulcán made at Killowen, an Irish poitín distilled from peated oats and peated barley. That said, The Dark Slender Boy has afforded me a ringside seat to the latest chapter of Fionnán’s travels, making this €55 well spent.