Ardnamurchan Inaugural Release

Ardnamurchan Distillery is located in Glenbeg, Ardnamurchan, Argyll in the far West of Scotland. It's Scotland's most westerly mainland distillery.

They have just released their first whisky - let's see what it's like!

The Ardnamurchan Distillery was conceived in 2007, the build started in 2013 and they opened in July 2014. They have created the first distillery in the country with self-sustaining energy requirements through wood-burning boilers and hydro systems.

Beautiful location overlooking Loch Sunart Photo : CNN

Photo : Adelphi Distillery Ltd

The distillery has its own malting floor, using barley grown on the local estate. Water comes from local springs and the Glenmore river. The mash tun was limited to 3.2 meters diameter as that's the widest clearance on the winding road to the distillery. Two mashes are made each day Monday - Friday.

Photo : Adelphi Distillery Ltd

They have 4 Douglas Fir wash backs, 2 Cognac (the only Scottish distillery to use them) and 3 stainless steels ones. Gordon Mackenzie, the production manager, doesn't think there is much difference between them all - the wooden ones are just harder to clean! Fermentation lasts between 60 and 112 hours giving an average of 76 hours.

Photo : Adelphi Distillery Ltd

Photo : Bluestone 98 Mark Ingram Photography

They produces two styles of spirit, one peated and one unpeated, usually switching between the two types every 6 months. The spirit is casked into American and European oak, ex-sherry casks and American oak ex-bourbon casks from Old Forester.

Cask #1 being filled 1st August 2014, Photo : Adelphi Distillery Ltd

All whisky is matured on site, they have a twin floor traditional dunnage warehouse, the lower level having a soil floor.

Photo : Adelphi Distillery Ltd

Photo: Ardnamurchan

The Inaugural Release labelled AD/09.20:01 came out in October 2020.

NAS, but at around 6yo, presented at 46.8% ABV. It's been bottled from a 50:50 split of peated and unpeated spirit matured in 65% ex-bourbon casks and 35% sherry casks.

Distillery notes: 

Honeycomb, waxy peel, oyster shells, brine, strawberries with black pepper, bonfire embers.

My thoughts:

Appearance: Pale gold in the glass, swirls leave a hairline crack which slowly beads up, forming an inverted crown, before eventually fall as slow thick legs.

Nose: Gentle peat smoke, hints of vanilla and strawberry jam. a little air offers tropical fruit notes, dry wood and some toffee.

Palate: Smooth, sweet, slightly oily arrival - strawberry jam, vanilla custard and a hint of seaweed. Orchard fruit and tropical fruit notes combine - apples, pears, peaches, apricots, pineapple, bananas. Then then smoke comes - it's very gentle but builds - it doesn't smother all the other notes but compliments them - yummy!

Finish: Lingering oily citrus notes, quite drying and that ever present peat smoke note.

Thoughts: Wow - easily the best first release I've had from any distillery - just go and buy a bottle now. Ardnamurchan have put a lot of effort into this whisky and not released it at 3yo to make a fast buck. It's very reasonably priced at around £45 and with nearly 16,000 bottles being released it shouldn't be too hard to get hold of. I really can't wait to try the samples I have - see below and spend some serious time with this bottle and their future releases.

I bought this bottle along with a tasting set from the Southport Whisky Club. The tasting set contained 3 single cask drams: an unpeated Paul Launois Champagne Finish, a peated ex-bourbon and a peated ex-oloroso. The tasting is at the end of the month - I'm not sure they or my bottle will last that long!

Geeky stuff:

Ardnamurchan have used blockchain technology to record and store their batch releases.

"We are utilising a new platform that makes use of blockchain technology (most usually associated with crypto-currencies such as bitcoin) to provide a secure and immutable model of the full supply chain that describes the manufacture of our whisky.

 We track each and every finished bottle of whisky and see each bottle as a unique asset and, through the use of QR barcodes and other smartphone scannable technology, deliver individual data to our customers that interacts with our bottles. This allows the story of your bottle of whisky to be told directly to you, because we can prove every step along the manufacturing process (thanks to the blockchain!), allowing you to discover the provenance of your bottle of whisky right back to its origin, building trust in our process and strengthening your knowledge of your whisky."

If you scan the QR code on your bottle you are provided with lots of information about your bottle and the liquid it contains - my bottle was number 624 of 15,978 bottled by hand by Lewis Hamilton on 22nd September 2020 - really interesting as I actually paid for it on the 9th September!

Barley information : User Name: Alex Bruce Event Name: Add Ingredient To Brew Malt Name: Concerto Event Date: 27-07-2015 Mashing information: User Name: Gordon Mackenzie Event Name: Add Mash WaterMin Temperature: 64 Max Temperature: 90 Event Date: 27-07-2015 Fermentation information: User Name: Gordon Mackenzie Event Name: Complete Fermentation Average Fermentation Hours: 76 Event Date: 27-07-2015 Distillation information: User Name: Nicky Docherty Event Name: Set Spirit Still Time Off Min Hydrometer: 68.5 Max Hydrometer: 70.5 Event Date: 30-07-2015 Maturation information: