Ardnahoe 6yo Aqvavitae Small Batch
Ex-bourbon exclusive release | 55% ABV
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A delicious, beautifully done taste of Ardnahoe’s potential
Affirming life.
When reading reviews on this website it’s not uncommon to read about the sudden realisation of one’s mortality, driving them to connect with certain drams.
Or even open bottles; those that otherwise would have remained sealed for God knows how long. I think of Nick’s Ardbeg 10yo review, Dougie’s musings when reviewing an Ardnamurchan Sauternes Cask Release, Ogilvie’s piece on the Aberlour Casg Annamh, or more recently Wally’s Strathisla 40yo review.
Many of us seem to suffer from a certain sentimentality, a desire to save the good stuff for the future. This habit seems to be active and stimulated in the hearts and minds of many a whisky enthusiast. We tend to want to save special bottles for either a rainy day, a special occasion, or professional or personal milestones perhaps. And in one way or another, I’m no stranger to this.
I find myself in the lucky position of having a good relationship with a local retailer and I’ve been able to get my eager, greedy hands on a few bottles that I consider a bit special and which I’d like to keep sealed for a while. In some cases that’s because I’d like to open them on a special occasion. However, a few more have remained sealed because of my palate insecurity.
My what? Okay, hear me out.
You see, I’m now only some five years into my whisky journey and while I can nose and taste my way around many more smells and flavours than two or three years ago, I know damn well that my palate is not as advanced and fine-tuned as that of those who have been enjoying whisky for a decade or more. A concern or realisation also recently admitted to by Ogilvie in this piece right here - definitely worth a read if you haven’t done so yet!
And so, some of my prized bottles remain sealed to this day, for the very simple reason that I’m afraid I won’t get the most out of them - yet. But this idea that I should wait until I can fully appreciate the contents of a bottle never seemed to bother me much. There’s time, right?
Sure, I would read about my fellow writers embracing the moment, the day, and life itself after being confronted with mortality, or challenging experiences themselves such as the tragic loss of loved ones, and I would fully understand the sentiment and think - yes, that’s the way it should be! Live life to the fullest! Pop that cork and enjoy!
It just never felt close enough to have the same effect on me. In my 27 years on this planet I have been fortunate enough, up until now, to be able to count all the funerals I’ve attended on one hand. A privileged position and one that will not last much longer, I’m afraid. Death just seems fairly far away most of the time.
Ardnahoe on the other hand never seems far away. It’s been over a year since I was introduced to their Inaugural 5yo. I was so utterly impressed with it that I bought a back-up mere days after opening it. I still have that first bottle and I have to exercise all my self-restraint to make it last more than a year. Another back-up was purchased this spring… and another one this summer.
Their whisky seems to have the same effect on me that Ardnamurchan has on Dougie, or Springbank on… well, on almost anyone it seems.
As you can imagine then, when this small batch limited release Ardnahoe Barflies bottling was announced during the weekly vPub on Roy Duff’s Aqvavitae YouTube channel, I was wringing my hands.
Mr. Duff has over the last few years collaborated with a number of distilleries to bottle some limited-edition bottles for his online community: The Barflies. These releases tend to be received well, and the use of three barrels instead of a single cask to create this particular small batch meant that, maybe for the first time, there might be enough of it available for all those who were interested.
And sure enough; where the shopping link was private and intended first and foremost for his Patreon subscribers, it went public after a while.
I was notified, dropped whatever I was doing at the time, and promptly ordered one. Then, when DHL’s email about the import fees came in I swallowed, successfully fooled myself into believing I was paying with Monopoly money, and quickly found something to distract myself with.
Feedback on social media and YouTube seemed to suggest that this Ardnahoe was a tasty one indeed and realising that I wouldn’t get a chance to re-buy it, that familiar voice in my head immediately whispered: “You shouldn’t open it for a while. It might be a bit special. Why don’t you wait a year? Maybe two? Your palate will have developed further and you’ll be able to appreciate it more. Save it.”
Before I had even thrown away the wrapping tissue it came in, I had carefully tucked it away in the back of the cupboard to avoid temptation. Yes, I should probably wait if I want to get the most out of it.
I went about my day and found myself behind the piano of a study room at school that night when a message came in from one of the choirs I sing in as a freelancer. A fellow tenor had passed away. 55 years old. Heart attack. Poof! Just like that.
Now, I had only known him for three years, but we sang some wonderful operas and concerts standing shoulder to shoulder, and many rehearsals were spent laughing more than we were singing. He was a talented, kind-hearted, soft-spoken gentleman.
Over the course of that evening the news settled inside of me and hit me much harder than I initially thought it would.
Less than two days later I got word of another someone dear to me being diagnosed with a second form of cancer, almost a year after the first diagnosis.
I was home alone that evening and thoughts of my own mortality and the fragility of life kept me company for hours on end. It was already late when I decided I’d have a dram and while browsing through the cupboard I saw the gold patterned seal on the cork of this new Ardnahoe tucked away in the back. Then I thought about how I could have a heart attack tomorrow or get struck by lightning or get hit by a drunk driver and I would never know what it would have tasted like.
“Oh, stuff it!”*
(*I may have uttered another word containing one less F.)
Review
Ardnahoe 6yo, Small Batch Release for Aqvavitae, marriage of three ex-bourbon casks, 762 bottles, 55% ABV
£85 sold out
Score: 8/10
Something special.
TL;DR
A delicious, beautifully done taste of Ardnahoe’s potential
Nose
Cool. Hefty, aromatic peat. Starfruit! When I got a blast of that on first contact I thought I might be led by the official tasting notes, so I went out and bought some starfruit. Yup, bang on! Cucumber? Oatmeal garnishing a bowl of porridge. Florality that increases with time in the glass. Butter. There’s a small hint of fresh pastries that I got more of on the inaugural 5yo. Homemade ice tea from white peaches without sugar added. Upon addition of water the peat remains as strong, but the smoke initially becomes much more prominent. It’s a sweet smoke, though not quite Caol Ila level sweet. Here it’s milder. Leave it for a while and the smoke subsides a bit, making way for cool butteriness rolling to the foreground. Then some apple makes itself known.
Palate
Thick. Oily. It coats the palate. There’s a lovely texture and weighty mouthfeel to it. You can thank the worm tubs for that, I think. Despite its youth and ABV, no alcohol heat. The pastries are here too, and they’ve got lemon zest sprinkled on top and some lemon juice was added to the dough. Eucalyptus? Or am I just imagining that? Addition of water brings a zingy, nicely tart, effervescent tingle to the tongue. Tropical fruits (including that starfruit) soaked in booze. It takes water really well and I encourage you to play around with it. The finish brings some earthy bonfire. Some apple notes here too. Slightly vegetal ashy note right at the end.
The Dregs
Yeah, opening this one was a good idea. It’s a remarkably balanced thing (not just for its age) especially considering it isn’t a large batch of casks in which cracks and bumps can be smoothed over by sheer volume of likeness. Here three great quality ex-bourbon casks have been married really quite well. This Mr. Duff and the team at Ardnahoe seem to know what they’re doing.
Maybe in the future we will see a fully ex-bourbon matured Ardnahoe as a, dare I suggest, core range offering? A man can dream, right?*
Since this pretty thing was opened a number of ‘special’ bottles that were on the waiting list have been opened in its wake. Most of them worth reviewing, I’m sure.
Recently a certain rest has set in about how developed my palate is these days. No longer will I be keeping so many bottles I deem ‘special’ closed for an unnecessarily long time without daring to touch them, because here’s the thing - I can make these bottles last as long as I want. Heck, I could go full Ralfydotcom and get a can of wine preserver in the form of natural heavy gas to save it from over-oxidisation. This very bottle could last me a decade if stored under the right conditions. And every time I go back to it after a while, I will be able to appreciate it more.
Instead of holding off until I think my palate is evolved enough for some of these whiskies, my palate will simply evolve and grow along with these whiskies.
Now, I won’t bully anyone into opening their precious bottles. Having said that, chances are you have a few tucked away for a rainy day. Be it Springbanks, old Longmorns, a single cask this or that. Sometimes the rainy day is just a day on which it happens to rain. And sometimes the special occasion is just a solitary moment of peace.
Have a peek in the back of the cupboard and when curiosity strikes - maybe don’t fight it too much. Ask yourself if it will really taste any better three, seven, or fifteen years down the road. And I know full well how crude this sounds, but, you might kick the bucket tomorrow. Wouldn’t you want to know what it would have tasted like? Wouldn’t you want to have been able to share it? I’ll leave it at that.
To your good health, dear reader.
*At point of publishing, a new Cask Strength release addition of the Ardnahoe core range is announced - and from exclusively ex-bourbon casks!
Score: 8/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. MM
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