Ardmore 14 Year Old 2000 Golden Cask

The Golden Cask is a series by independent bottler House of Macduff, in which owner John McDougal selects single casks that he bottles without chill filtration and at cask strength. This Ardmore 2000 has a pale straw color and was clearly drawn from a bourbon cask.

Fruit comes first on the nose. Mostly apples, pears and some pineapple. The smokiness that you would expect from Ardmore is all the way in the back. Nice hints of cardamom and vanilla. This is mostly sweet and a touch dry.

The arrival is nice and creamy. Now the peat shows itself and turns into a nice smoky development. But it is still all sweetness that dominates. A truckload of vanilla, followed by white fruit, but also nice spices. The fruit evolves towards coconut milk and some agrums. This is nice and does not need any water.

In the medium long and sweet finish, the smoke slowly clears to make way for a bitter finale by the wood.

A somewhat modest nose, nice palate, but just a tad too much wood in the finish in my book. Just under 100 EUR.

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