Craigduff 40 yo 1973 / 2013 Signatory #2516 49.6% vs Ardmore 1991 / 2006 Gordon & Macphail #6158/59/60 57.9%
Craigduff 40 yo 1973 / 2013 Signatory #2516 49.6%
What you get when you lightly peat an otherwise funky fruity malt. Warm honey and hay, spilt beer and wet cement, but also an earthy mushroom and funkily fermenting citrus. Dried grass lit on a pile of hot stone and clay. A strange combination of notes but one must not dwell on Islay only. So it’s not overtly peated on the nose but on the tongue and at the back of the mouth the smoke and floating ash come to the fore whilst riding a wave of that fermented fruit. Burnt branches and rain soaked fire pits. Something of a dislocating experience. 86 pts
Ardmore 1991 / 2006 Gordon & Macphail #6158/59/60 57.9%
In more familiar territory now, and in fact its rather good. Earthy with mineral oil, sun dried roots, compost and shaved bark strips. Yet all the same rather linear and cleanly so, if that makes sense. This one shouts a bit, with lots of black pepper and roasted ginger. Plenty of heat and wood driven spices to back up the palate, though that itself reveals a bit of youth. A simple whisky then, but these vintages should be great now. 86 pts
Whiskyrific RSS
- Millburn 36 yo 1969 / 2005 Douglas Laing #DL2152 50% vs Glenburgie 40 yo 1963 / 2003 Signatory #4751 56.4%
- Ben Nevis 23 yo 1996 / 2019 Single Malts of Scotland for the Nectar #536 51.3% vs A Speyside Distillery 32 yo 1989 / 2022 Thompson Bros 51.4%
- Brora 22 yo 1972 / 1995 Rare Malts 61.1% vs Brora 22 yo 1972 / 1995 Rare Malts 58.7%
- Talimburg 19 yo 1986 / 2005 The Whisky Fair #1485 45.9% vs Talisker 20 yo 1981 / 2002 62%
- Caol Ila 12 yo Bulloch Lade for Zenith 43% vs Caol Ila 30 yo 1979 / 2010 Berry Bros #4604/5 55.6%
- Clynelish 29 yo 1965 Whyte & Whyte 52.1%
- Brora 21 yo 1982 / 2003 Signatory #416 58.4% vs Clynelish 27 yo 1982 / 2009 Synch Eli Daily Dram 46%
- Dornoch 5 yo 2017 / 2023 #46 ‘Jasper Broers’ 57.9% vs Shizuoka ‘private cask’ 2017 / 2022 #2017-108 61%
- Clynelish 26 yo 1993 / 2020 Carn Mor #11215 52.7% vs Bowmore 17 yo 2004 /2021 SMWS 3.327 ‘Siren’s Song’ 57.1%
- Talisker 25 yo ‘Bottle TA25 3987’ 45.8% ~ bottle code L0296CM004 bottled 2020 vs Ledaig 11 yo 2008 / 2019 The Swan Song & 1BRD #700104 58.7%
whiskyrific 