30/10/2026 Ardnamurchan

Ardnamurchan 8yo 2018/2026 (63.3%, Cadenhead Authentic Collection, Bourbon Barrel, 228b): nose: it has a mineral cleanliness from the get-go, like a stone puled out from a stream, dried, yet inexorably polished by years of erosion. Shortly thereafter comes a mildly-medicinal touch (disinfectant or guaiacol), followed by a whiff of burnt wood and subtle softened butter. Finally, we find thorn-y twigs, hawthorn or brambles. The second nose has a wood stove in a rustic kitchen in the north of Italy in autumn. At some point soon, it will see a cauldron with polenta; for now, it is gaining heat. There is a tumbler of cheap red wine on the table, following the rising temperature in the room. With water, the nose turns more coastal, with sea breeze and a mist of sea spray. Eating orchard fruits on the harbour on a drizzly day. Mouth: clean and sweet on entry, very sweet, in fact, it peddles spent matches and charred hazel sticks with the most-limited chewing. Intentionally moving the liquid around the mouth ignites a fire of char -- charred twigs, a pile of matches (left behind by an arsonist, no doubt), liquid fire starter, burnt pine logs. It still has guaiacol and surgical disinfectant, some might say TCP, yet the acrid smoke and charred bits are loudest, reminiscent of a lunchtime fire on a November day's lumbering in the woods. The second sip has ashy peach slices, juicy, fruity, not fully ripe, and made a bit abrasive by a dusting of ashes. Water tones down the heat and the smoky side to focus on orchard fruits again. Only when chewing does the ashtray of a fire insert emerge, not even full of ashes. Finish: dry peat, then burnt peat. It is almost wood smoke, initially, from what seems to have been an efficient flame. Then it changes and hints at damper, smokier mosses, giving thicker, more-acrid smoke. Throughout, a pleasant sweetness hovers, strawberries or such. Retro-nasal olfaction sees lichens clinging to the sides of a vase, bone-dry, close to ash-like. The second gulp throws peach slices into a bowl of ashes and stirs them with a wooden spoon. It does not really go beyond that, but it also does not need to. It dies out with a pinch of soot, acrid and sticky. Water makes for a robust-if-juicy finish. More orchard fruits (apples, plums) and a pile of dry white-wood logs waiting to be thrown onto the fire. Perhaps it has a spoonful of lemon curd too. Pleasant, if not super challenging. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, JH)