Two 5yo & Two 10yo releases | Mixed ABV

Score: 8/10

**Something Special.**
***TL;DR***
*The Ardnamurchan spirit, dextrous and versatile, sings across time.*

Someone Has To.

I note with some dismay that there’s not been an Ardnamurchan review on Dramface for the past 3 weeks, and this makes my heart hurt.

To counter, I'm going to take you along in my mining odyssey, deep inside the dark caves of Ardnamurchan Distillery with not one, but four expressions of their inimitable spirit.

Those familiar with my waffling around Ardnamurchan know of my deeply entrenched love of their whisky, and how it makes me feel: lucky to be here at such a pivotal moment not just in Ardnamurchan’s journey, but in whisky as a whole.

The first two bottles under review today are both from my recent Whisky Dash to Campbeltown, where I picked up the latest outturn of Ardnamurchan 5yo Oloroso casked Cadenhead’s, and on my return home collected from auction a bottle of the whisky that opened my eyes to the potential Ardnamurchan whisky has: the 5yo 2015 Maclean & Bruce from Adelphi.

Back in 2022 when I was holidaying on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, I voyaged to the distillery which, at that point, was a young, vibrant upstart not long released into the whisky scene. Rumblings of Ardnamurchan being “the next Springbank” were rife, and their whisky was already making ripples of excitement across the land.

Their inaugural released core range AD/09.20:01 was sold out quickly and became the flag bearer for the distillery. Oor commander-in-chief long held this (and maybe still does) as the bottle that defines Ardnamurchan’s whisky character, but I arrived far too late to get one, instead enjoying their AD/07.21:05 as my first experience of Ardnamurchan whisky. I still remember buying two and being really chuffed about it, because at that point Ardnamurchan was being chased fervently.

Through 2021 to present, Ardnamurchan whisky has remained popular, but I’ve seen a cooling of the ripping-hot bottle grab that defined the latter and post COVID years. Where single casks, in their tactile slate-blue painted form that evaporated before webshops had even loaded their images, began to stick around longer than ever, giving those not on the bleeding edge of chaserville a crack at trying them. Even the most sought-after bottle, the Paul Launois release, held a beat or two longer.

It’s a different picture in 2025 when it comes to whisky, and the overall conduct of distilleries during the feverish heyday of the past three years, that can only be viewed in hindsight, is now coming into focus. Ardnamurchan, for me, are established as the forerunners of “new wave” distilleries doing it right; championing accessible, affordable whisky and lifting people up through human connection, humour and the important - but oft overlooked - quality of levity; of bringing a lighter touch to what could be seen as a desperate situation inside whiskyworld.

Where others launched their inaugural whiskies swinging with the scalpers and embracing the absurdity of auction fodder, Ardnamurchan took, and still takes, the approach of quietly going about their business with absolute confidence in their spirit as a drinking dram, and knowing that they’ve not taken the opportunistic road when it so easily could’ve given them financial boon, and greater security.

It irks some and converts others; but as we watch whisky crest and descend the popularity graph, Ardnamurchan have done everything to position themselves in a very strong place to weather what we all hope will be a temporary dip, in what has been a wildly exciting place to inhabit these past four years.

Anyway, it was back in 2022 that I first tried the 5yo 2015 Maclean & Bruce Adelphi release and my brain exploded with the most intense red-fruit, maritime salty whisky I’d tried to date. Granted my experience in whisky was barely a year on, but it was a pivotal moment in my journey. I knew then that Ardnamurchan was a distillery to follow, and experience, closely.

I’d long chased this bottle through auctions, putting ambitiously low bids into the constantly present bottles, never winning any due to the price demanded, and the quantity of folk willing to pay it. 2025 has brought the demand down enough for me to win one, for the princely sum of £86.26. The excitement to try this whisky again was unreasonably high, probably because it has remained the unicorn in my own sphere of young, exciting whisky.

I recently reviewed the 2nd release of 5yo Ardnamurchan Maclean & Bruce from Adelphi, and it wasn’t the firecracker that I remembered the original to be, but still loved it. As I was finishing off my review for that bottle, I remember feeling like there was something about the whisky that felt familiar, that was holding it back but, being the village idiot, I couldn't understand why. I marked it as I saw it:

Scoring wise, it’s up there as one of the fine examples of red Ardna, but there’s just something holding it back…This is more aligned to the UK Exclusive CK.339 (also an Oloroso sherry butt) - just downright tasty whisky. Very good indeed, 7/10 on the DCNSA*.

It turns out that the thing holding it back was my knowledge and ability to recognise flavours in whisky. The 2018 5yo Ardnamurchan Maclean & Bruce, despite only stating that it’s two Oloroso butts on the label, is actually a lot more interesting in composition, something revealed to me post-review. Rather than be unpeated barley in two Oloroso butts, it’s actually unpeated Golden Promise into a first fill Oloroso butt, coupled with a peated first fill Oloroso butt.

Despite not recognising these bold, identifiable characters to which I’ve swooned and barked about in the past, going back to the 2018 M&B whisky post-review was like a light switch being turned on in the back room - of course those flavours are in there, and of course it’s peated. I’m not ashamed to say that I continue to fall short of being a whisky savant, despite my best efforts.

The Golden Promise chocolate syrup character was clearly evident, as was the salty earthiness of the peat. It was a strange pseudo-blind experience, and on the one hand I’m a bit irked that this important information was withheld from the bottle/label/literature, but on the other hand I’m delighted to be wrongfooted once again.

Does it change the scoring now that I know there’s GP spirit in there? I’d be lying if I wasn’t tempted to redress the situation, but doing so would be wrong. Just because I retrospectively discovered (through Carl Craft’s investigative skills) that the 2018 M&C was more interesting than I gave it credit for, doesn’t mean my experience changes. Yes, I think I regard the 2018 M&B with a bit more love now with subsequent tastings, and I can recognise those elements in there, but an 8/10 is still a bit out of reach. It didn’t completely knock my socks off like the distillery hand-fill GP, or the Doddy Cask, and in the golden age of Ardnamurchan, it needs to astonish to reach those new lofty heights on the DCNSA.

The other two bottles under scrutiny today are geographically unique releases that, being I am situated on the western coastline of Scotland, have offered up the chance for me to procure. The first is the distillery exclusive / visitor centre sort-of-single-cask bottling of a 10yo whisky that has been matured for 8 years in bourbon and 2 years in Paul Launois - something we AD/Venturers were able to experience at our club meeting in May.

The second bottle is another 10yo. This time a defacto single cask unpeated bourbon ASB that has been bottled in celebration of the myriad Highland Games that occur around the Ardnamurchan peninsula at this time of year: the Kilchoan, Arisaig, Lochaline and Morvern Highland Games.

Arisaig is an hour’s drive south, a short ferry sailing from Armadale to Mallaig and a quick 15-minute scoot to the field beside Silversands Campsite, the place where we decided it was time to move our family to the west coast of Scotland. It holds a special place for me and, sitting deep inside five weeks of school holiday child boredom, I booked the ferry and took Mini Crystal on a day trip to try and pinch one.

I wrote in my review of their first ever 10yo release that this was just the start of it, that soon we’ll be rolling decadently in so much 10yo Ardnamurchan whisky that we’ll not know how to conduct ourselves. Whilst that hasn’t quite happened, I’m delighted to see these two expressions released at almost the same time - a sign of things to come?

Two 5yo Oloroso matured whiskies, and two 10yo bourbon matured whiskies. A pretty interesting tête-à-tête!

*Two indies, two officials. All Ardnamurchan.*

Review 1 of 4

Ardnamurchan 5yo, Cadenhead’s Natural Strength, Oloroso Cask Matured, June 2025 Outturn, 58.1% ABV
£70 available online

Score: 7/10

**Very Good Indeed.**
***TL;DR***
*Business-as-usual oloroso Ardna, which is a good business to be in*

Nose

Pepper. Patchouli? Spice cabinet. Turmeric - earthy. Sawn cedarwood. Petrichor - midnight rain, a freshness/cleansing. Root veg, soil. Magazine. Buttery honey. Red bits and bobs - raspberry pie.

Palate

Red, cedar, peppery spice. Strawberry and cherry crumble. Oaky. Wee bit clove. Orange studded. Heather honey. Leather amidst some orchards. Spiced cinnamon apples. Mulled wine? Quite festive. Caramelised pear.

The Dregs

This is business as usual Oloroso matured Ardnamurchan. Sweet, coastal, salty, juicy, fruity, a bit earthy and overall, just delicious sipping whisky. A touch of water tempers the ABV and reduces the introduction, which for me isn’t a good thing but, other than that, it’s more of the glorious same. 5yo whisky can be hit and miss, depending on the distillery - often presenting as bright, tropical, farmy juice with some active cask play to steer it to whatever the label states - sherry, rum, madeira etc.

Oloroso Ardnamurchan glows at 5yo. I think because of their dextrous spirit, quality cask control and coastal warehousing. The raft of single casks under 8 years of maturation that have blown me away, far outnumbers any from other young distilleries, save perhaps Glasgow. £70 is money well spent.

Score: 7/10

Review 2 of 4

Ardnamurchan 5yo, Adelphi Selection - Maclean & Bruce 2015, Double Cask, 59.3% ABV
£86.26 available on auction

Score: 8/10

**Something Special.**
***TL;DR***
*As impactful now as it was in 2022, this is definitive 5yo half-peated red Ardnamurchan. Class*

Nose

Sweet smoke and very earthy - freshly tilled soil with a bonfire burning. Lots of woods, lots of cedars, lots of reds, a bit of ginger biscuits covered in dark choc, some fresh tarmac, salt, maritime, Ardna.

Palate

Salty, earthy, smokey, mineralic, blueberries and those blue “blueberry” ice poles/juices. Honey and matches. Cedar, raspberry, squash court, saline, rich. It’s sporadic and intense. A bit of astringency to get the mouth-watering. Warming, rocky. Flinty almost. Red jelly things from pick’n’mix.

The Dregs

As if further evidence was needed of Ardnamurchan’s ability to produce whisky that defies age, this is the one bottle that held the highest chance of disappointment given it was the origin of my love story with this distillery. At the time of first trying this I was green to whisky but still knew it was astonishingly good. Many years and hundreds of whiskies on, I’m coming to this auction win with trepidation. Will it hold the key to my Ardnamurchan obsession?

The first pour confirms it. The eyebrows go up, the eyes widen. The secret of this M&B is that it’s young, vibrant, packed full of robust flavour and, crucially, half peated. Two sherry butts, one unpeated Oloroso and the other peated Oloroso, both 5yo and both selected by Charles Maclean to be combined into one ultrablend.

It’s visceral, striking, flip-flopping enjoyment. From the big juicy banger of bright strawberry laces and them funny red jelly things with white paste in the middle that you find at newsagents and pick-’n’-mix isles, to a wave of salty, earthy, matchstriker razor’s edge wildness. It’s fantastic. It’s mouth-squeezing flavour. It’s nuanced and shouty back-to-back.

When sampled alongside the 2nd Edition 2018 M&B there’s marked differences. The Golden Promise chocolateyness and overall earthy grounding of the latter, is counterpoised with the astringent salty berryness of the 2015. There’s no wonder this made me transition from wild-eyed scattergunning discovery, to laser focused gold mining. Magnificent whisky and something to really savour as one of the peak Ardnamurchan whiskies around.

Score: 8/10

Review 3 of 4

Ardnamurchan 10yo, 2014 Bourbon ASB for the Local Games, 57.8% ABV
£65 available at the Local Games

Score: 8/10

**Something Special.**
***TL;DR***
*10yo straight-bourbon matured whisky. It’s unfettered, pure Ardnamurchan and a delight*

Nose

Syrup for days. Very tropical to boot - white fruits - apple, pears, stewed, poached, caramelised. Old wooden cigar box, prominent wood notes. Still has the baseline coastal character, but it’s a lot softer and wider.

Palate

Juicy bamstick with those orchard fruits - something I’ve not really experienced in Ardna before. Sweeter, pears again - caramelised. Salty pears too. Cherry yoghurt, oak bookcase, earth, dust. Rich, syrup - great texture. Flinty too - that elemental rocky feel to it.

The Dregs

For the 10yo whiskies I’ll start with the Local Games, because it’s the 2nd purest edition of decade Ardnamurchan I’ve experienced. The first was the 10yo Adelphi release to celebrate their anniversary, and excellent. Full of malty, bready notes alongside the coastal salty rocks and ocean spray. This is more of the same, albeit with a touch more biscuits and cream - custard creams.

There’s truth in that Ardnamurchan is, like many new distilleries, formulating their whisky to “come good” at 5-6 years of maturation - a choice selection of “active” casks and monitoring delivers whisky that belies its age. Ardnamurchan is no stranger to whisky that shocks on account of its lack of youth, despite its age - their “2018/AD Spirit”, a 2-3 year blending of whisky that isn’t yet whisky, tastes and delivers like much older whisky. Astonishing, really.

Well, the Ardnamurchan spirit is able to do both it seems - offer visceral casks of potent flavour at 5-8 years of age, and also hold out for a 10yo bourbon, unfettered cask of golden joy, like this one. It’s softer, wider - it feels like the flavour stage extends past the face and into the ears, and each note is clear and identifiable, rather than having to be unpicked from a ball of noise. It’s relaxing, and we get to witness a drop of the shoulders as the whisky hits stride at 10.

What’s most surprising is the appearance, for the first time, of potent orchard fruits - lots of fresh, juicy pears and apples. It’s quite remarkable. Also a bit more wood in there, not so much the fresh cedarwood but more antique oak, like bookcases and long disused cigar boxes. It feels “older”, through the musty and weathered flavours in abundance. A superb flavour spectrum, great texture, notable retention of the Ardna character, it’s a doozy.

Connal is excited for the 2015 stock to hit maturation, and so am I. This is a 2014 distilled whisky, so still in the phase of tinkering and setting up, rather than the dialled in phase of 2015. It bears repeating: if this is whisky before the dials were set, then we are in for astonishing levels of impressive Ardnamurchan in the coming years. A joyous experience in full maturation bourbon coastal whisky.

Score: 8/10

*Alex Bruce, MD of Adelphi and Ardnamurchan Distillery, running the 50m race at the Arisaig Highland Games. Dead last.*

Review 4 of 4

Ardnamurchan 10yo, 2014 Paul Launois - 8yrs in bourbon, 2yrs in a Champagne Barrique, 57.0% ABV
£75 - sold out. :(

Score: 9/10

**Exceptional.**
***TL;DR***
*A new peak. Utterly immersive. Textural, flavourful, multi-dimensional. This is dreamboats*

Nose

Very fruity nose. Yeasty, sourdough starter - bit funky, ripe, tart, sour. Glue almost. Golden syrup. Wet dog almost. Hard to pinpoint this ripe note. Garibaldi biscuits - flecks of dark raisins. Nice biscuits. Crisp. Rich, buttery, fresh, caramelised white fruits, zingy. Then off to the sweet races - toffees and golden stuffs. Golden Grahams. Honeyed. Back to the buttery, creamy notes again.

Palate

Oh. My. The impact is astonishing. Wave of salty, fizzy, yeasty, meaty, banana laced, tropical effervescence. That’s a greeting. Effervescence! Fizzy face. Syrup for days, what texture! Sour/salty syrup flip-flop. Wow. Peaches - peach melba - raspberry sauce. Old woods, petrichor, chardonnay - fermented oak. Fruity leather, baked apples, tart fruit compote/sauce, thick. Mouth coating. Absolute juicy, syrupy fizzbombs, if that’s even possible. Unctuous. Tart caramel sauce. Rocky stream water - a wee earthy quality to it too.

The Dregs

And so, to the final bottle here. A bottle that was only available at the Distillery Visitor Centre and sold out at the time of writing - the first 10yo Paul Launois single cask ever to be released.

Upfront I need to be a fun spoiler and note that this isn’t fully matured 10yo whisky inside a single Paul Launois champagne barrique, despite it being a 10yo Paul Launois single cask. Much the same as the Paul Launois releases are likewise bourbon maturation with Paul Launois finishing, this blue bottle has been finished for around 2 years in the PL barriques, with 8 in bourbon before.

A detail that only I might think worth confirming, but I want the details, especially when whisky hits like this does. Whatever bourbon cask this spent 8 years in has laid down a ribbon of shimmering gold around which the champagne cask can weave its fizzing tentacles.

The Paul Launois releases have always been high on most Ardnamurchan pursuer’s list, and the biscuity, souring, yeasty notes that the champagne barriques bring to Ardnamurchan’s coastal spirit, creates a whisky of absolute decadence - something you cannot find anywhere else on the planet. It’s a unique whisky. It’s a fantastic whisky.

The effervescence that has eluded me so far in all whisky to date, in Paul Launois and things like Loch Lomond’s Chardonnay yeast Distillery Exclusives, has arrived in undisputable style here, smacking me in my face like a glitter studded kipper. It’s an intake of sharp breath, in a glass.

Alongside the fizz and brightness is a syrupy quality that I’ve only seen in a few releases from Ardnamurchan so far. Texture for days, it coats all the mouth and nose pipes with unctuous thickness, to say nothing of the flavour that oil carries - sweet caramel lashings, salted chocolate and syrup saturated sponges with a glassy sharpness that slices through all the other flavours to make the finish longer than a week in Connal’s underpants. It’s an experience. Utterly dreamy, utterly moreish and unbelievably tasty. Salty, sweet, souring, tart, earthy - no smoke.

This is Everest Ardnamurchan for me so far. It’s a level above the rest. It’s assuredly ridiculous in mouth flavour, olfactory engagement and eyeball illumination - what a colour it is too, reminding me of the Glen Garioch 11yo Adelphi release for the AD/Venturers, in all its liquid gold presentation. A trifecta of wins, and deserving of the first 9/10 score for Ardnamurchan since the new scale was rolled out a year ago.

I have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy this whisky and its constantly revealing flavour odyssey that seems to never want to cease. I’m unworthy of its gifts. Yet there are others who have made the journey to the distillery with intention only to stick it on the auctions, which disappoints me greatly. Witnessing the grab for the only bottle available at the latest auction, driving the final price to an eye-watering £475 with fees and postage, shows that there are still people out there with common sense issues. Paying a £400 premium above retail price is an indicator that immediate professional assistance is required.

Nevertheless, I’m delighted that I managed to experience this, because it’s genre defining whisky; the champagne barrique whisky scene is niche, granted, but on the small scale of things yeasty and champagne-y, this is the new reference. I hope that what I say will not tempt more people to stick theirs on auction - if they do, they’ll never know of a whisky that reconfigured my face into a contorted vision of a man struggling to process pure happiness.

Gosh darnit, Ardnamurchan are doing some incredible things! This 10yo 2014 Paul Launois brings my running total of Ardnamurchan whiskies sampled to 107, and of those 107 this one is, for now, the pinnacle.

Score: 9/10

*DCNSA - the Dougie Crystal New Scale for Ardnamurchan

Tried these? Share your thoughts in the comments below. DC

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