The Ardmore - Tradition

In the #TheArdmoreWhisky Twitter Tasting the second dram to be presented to us all was the Tradition. An expression bottled at 46% and one with some interesting flavours. First we had a taste of the Legacy and comparing this with the Tradition was very different to me and I felt it helped that it was 46% but also experienced a more complex nose and a need for time to let it breath and open up.

The nose first was very dense and made me think of densely packed wet hay. Combine that with a smell of very dense toasted wood and nuts with a very dark burned caramel. That was not a good start I though, and backed up a bit from it. Give it time.

Time helped and it opened up an array of lovely sweet fruity notes and spices. Green apples, blackcurrant (almost so dense it reminded me of tar), brambles, pistachio, roasted almonds and tobacco.

Sweet, creamy soft fruits with soft leather and oriental spices and lush sweet Asian cakes and desserts. It took me a while to get to the bottom of this one, especially with the smoky under note shifting from the dense hay to a potato cellar, a bit earthy note. It was not overpowering the spices, fruit and sweet almost pastry notes.

When tasting it I found the same notes as on the nose, but the sweet honey, vanilla and raisins floated to the top, and after that filling my palate with layer after layer of sweet forrest fruits. Lovely smoky feeling going through that with soft roasted nuts like macademia, almonds, walnuts and even giving me a liquerish feel.

After the sweetness come some dryer notes in the not too long finish sadly. Caramel, heather, rosemary, thyme and some citrus/mint freshness come to mind, before there is a short burst of some pepper and red summer fruit that climb back up over the dryer smoke. It reminds me of trekdrop and After Eight. It is a bit a strange one, I like it, but not blowing me away completely. Scoring an 7,5 out of 10. One to come back to for sure and reevaluate. Thanks for sharing a sample with us Ardmore for this Twitter Tasting!