Let us cut to the chase. CMK has a nice slideshow about Adelphi and Ardnamurchan (Adelphi's relatively new distillery), but I am focusing on the whiskies and my notes. It will be difficult: seventy people with five drams each tend to chat.
The Glover 4yo b.2020 (54.7%, Adelphi, 1st Fill Bourbon Casks, B#5, 1008b): CMK explains that this is a blend of two casks of 4yo peated Ardnamurchan, two casks of 6yo unpeated Chichibu and six bottles of Linkwood. The blending took place at St George Distillery, in England, and HMRC would not allow casks of Scottish single malt to leave Scotland (if it leaves Scotland, it ceases to be a single malt Scotch). When HMRC stopped Adelphi's convoy, they popped the Linkwood bottles open and poured them into the casks. It was not single malt any longer: HMRC allowed them to travel beyond the border. Nose: leather purses and linen shopping bags. Further, a drop of nail polish and warm cardboard. It is mostly warm and subdued, Native-American style. Clay pots, dry straw, straw mats. The second sniff brings a whiff of custard and raw cereal. Mouth: gingery and full of red chilli powder, this is spicy and relentless in the first sip. The second one is a little more mellow, though still gingery, with custard powder and a milky texture. Spicy sawdust remains, though. Finish: warm, it has straw and hay, as well as raw cereal, in the back. Is that a whisper of distant smoke? Maybe. Decent, but I find it simple and boring. 6/10
Dalmore 21yo 1998/2019 (57.2%, Adelphi Limited, Refill Bourbon Cask, C#8217, 132b): the label reads Sherry, but we are told it is a Bourbon cask. The colour leaves no doubt about that. Nose: ah! This has a little bit of character, at least. Dark peach juice with walnuts, macerating in it. This nose is juicy and welcoming, with overripe oranges, apricots turning brown, but also butterscotch and a serving of fudge, as well as peach skins. Mouth: seemingly weaker than the Glover, the significantly-higher ABV allows orange pith to come through, tangerine segments and browned peach slices. Over time, the orange turns gingery. Finish: immediately darker, it presents a drop of tar and berry liqueur (elderberry is my guess), liquorice root and still a citrus-y touch, with orange pith, juicy segments (blood orange, actually) and the bitterness associated with blood-orange peels. 7/10
Isle of Jura 21yo 1998/2020 (54.2%, Adelphi Limited, Refill Oloroso Sherry Hogshead, C#2146, 265b): nose: very wine-y, meaty, it also has lots of earth (mud, even). But what dominates are those huge notes of cured meat, toasted bread and hard-boiled egg. Treacle comes in and out, with burning cinnamon sticks in its trail. It might be vaguely smoky, but it is rather woody without a doubt. Window putty, says CMK. I agree with him. Mouth: mellow, it has charred meat and thick wine sauce, a touch of rancio, lingonberry compote, scorched rubber, melted plastic buckets... This is divisive. I can see it doing well in Germany. Earthy, mouldy and meaty, in a cured-meat sort of way. Finish: yes, lots of lingonberry compote, roast beef, a horseradish kick and earth -- burnt Sienna, to be precise. Rubber is present, and it is brand-spanking new, this time. The finish is long, mildly drying and earthy. Oloroso indeed! 7/10
Benrinnes 13yo 2006/2019 (55.5%, Adelphi Selection, 1st Fill Oloroso Sherry Hogshead, C#305385, 267b): nose: a mix of marzipan and crushed pine cones, cigar boxes, gently-spicy custard, blackberries, raisins, and something softly minty, reminiscent of aniseed, drowned in something else... Dry pine needles, barely fragrant, and mango powder (amchur). Mouth: oh! yes, pine sap, pine-sap-filled chocolate, spearmint. The pine sap takes on an impressive strength, fresh and juicy. Maybe some pink-grapefruit zest, or blood-orange peel. That is right: there is an acidic side, as well as the pine influence. Finish: mint-y, pine-sappy chocolate, with a huge freshness. Spearmint, crisp apple, green sticks, fir trees, lovage seeds, a touch of liquorice, crushed cassia bark. Funnily enough, the finish has a certain sweetness to it, which is a bit of a relief, lest it might be considered (too) woody. As it stands, it is a remarkable dram, and the audience's favourite by far, tonight. 8/10
Caol Ila 13yo 2007/2020 (50.8%, Adelphi Selection, 1st Fill Oloroso Sherry Cask, C#301264, 309b): not to be confused with a Caol Ila 13yo 2003/2016 from the same bottler and bearing the same cask number. Nose: dry peat, with drying fishing nets, a hot engine room (rusty metal, boilers, old metal tools), drying brown paint, iodine and mossy bogs (not so dry, after all?) Barbecue sauce, barbecue-flavoured crisps (Grills or Frazzles). Further in the back, ink comes out, baking clay, and soft-water algae, dried and ready to eat with sushis. Mouth: surprisingly mellow, raisin-y, sweet and soft. There is virtually no peat here that I can taste; it is all syrupy sweetness. Dark chocolate, melting on the tongue, sweet blackcurrant drops, Demerara sugar, lichen on stave, verdigris... and then salt!? Finish: sweet, the finish comes up with cough lozenges. The peat comes back -- dry peat again; scorched earth, dry, burnt straw, cigar swirls, a minute quantity of rubber and Bakelite. Finally, warm liquorice laces, elderberry and blackcurrant cough drops. 8/10That is a session. It is nice to be able to tune out and focus, rather than take part in whatever debate, or indeed join the discussion, as the case may be. It is also nice not to have to travel to and from the event and to attend in pyjamas. But for all the pros of such a setting, it also has cons; namely, that it almost completely misses the social aspect, which is the point of a whisky tasting, in my opinion. And it also fails in that I feel I would have enjoyed trying those samples on my own as much (if not more). No disrespect meant to CMK: I am simply more easily distracted when the presenter is remote and did not pay much attention to his presentation.
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