Ralfy used to "keep it positive", but I love these scathing "rants of love", because he's actually trying to save the distilleries and the industry. Your best friends are those who aren't afraid to tell you things you don't want to hear (but need to). Thumbs up!
During WWII Ardmore distillery was used to gather in food from the farms and send it by rail to the troops. My mother was in the army there for much of the war.
I love Ardmore Legacy, first time I tried it, I couldn't believe what I'd bought but "there's no such thing as a bad whisky" so I went back and as I'm moving on in my whisky journey I have found it very good, lots of smoke and strong in flavour too, it's my opinion and its just an opinion but I like it. 👍🏻
Greeting Mr Ralfy, and thank you for another great review. I remember 10 years ago, this was my to go sigle malt, highly available, especially cheap at airport duty-free but I kost interest, now i know why. One legacy version that i recently really enjoyed is the Glengoyne Legacy series. It was on the clearance section of my local bottle shop. After tasting it, I went and bought another bottle, which unfortunately was the last one. Unfortunately, corporations ruin everything. I have seen the place that I have worked in the last 16 years , they hire people with little knowledge and those people try to make changes based on their 4 months time they have been there instead of asking those who have worked there for years. Many of our customers are my friends too and they tell me how disappointed they are and not gonna renew their contracts.
Hi Ralfy, Thanks for the review and your honest opinion. I had the 12 year old Port Wood in the past and I enjoyed it. The Legacy is not very good. One of two bottles of the Traditional old version with 46 percent is left in my stash. This one was better including a decent smoke taste. I remember Teachers from the past and they were good. Today's Teachers are too sanitized. I drink it from time to time with ginger ale. Maybe I need to find a sample of an independent Ardmore named Ardlair. Thank you again for keeping up the fight for better whisky. You are our Robin Hood. Cheers from a pat-pal im Germany
Beam Suntory is a strange one. They don’t have the Diageo size portfolio but they do a decent job with Glen Garioch and they haven’t totally screwed up Laphroaig despite their best efforts but it’s a crying shame what Bowmore is now and how how invisible Ardmore especially given how big a facility and the contribution it has made to whisky blends in particular. Auchentoshan is another dud that really shouldn’t be.
I am guessing that certain distilleries are so resilient, that they shine "despite", not "because of" who runs them. It's a race to the bottom and to the lowest common denominator. 100% agree on Auchentoshan, too.
@@alexk3088 Laphroaig 10 even at 40% is still a great introduction to Islay heavy peat style. QuarterCask for price and 10 cask strength are both great drams. I avoid Select and I’m not keen on Laphroaig in Sherry wood so Lore, Triple Wood etc I struggled with.
@@thealembicdiary1814 I think Suntory lucked out with the 'Japanese whisky' craze. They have no fricking clue about making good whisky. Either that, or they want to kill all competition to Japanese whisky.
Thanks Ralfy, as a new Scotch / Irish whiskey drinker you have been so helpful in steering me down the proper road. I otherwise would be drinking the over hyped corporate swill that other uneducated newbies drink. Keep educating and pointing out the distilleries that put profit above quality, that information alone is priceless. Beam / Suntory, the makers of Jim Beam (bottom shelf bourbon swill) and others need a good supply of deserved negative press . Too bad they make most of their money off of people who think flavor comes from coke or fruit juice instead of appreciating good whiskey.
*The Ardmore Legacy US version at 46% is a fine dram for the price. The previous version had a lot to offer, especially since it had double maturation. They changed the release a few years ago, but I used to get it at $40. That’s a very complement malt for the price. It’s night and day from the latest iteration at 40% using what I think are lessor casks. If you can find the US version with the older packaging, it’s a very nice value.
Fully agree. The old Ardmore Traditional Cask was a nice, characterful whisky at a very good price. The Legacy... well, I only bought one bottle of that and won't be buying another.
I still remember a bottle of Bowmore 10y Tempest that I had a decade ago. It pains me to know what they are able to make and yet they decide to put out the horrible swill of what are their core range offerings. They could do so much better and as you said Ralfy, same goes for Ardmore.
I am so afraid to get a Ardmore now it won’t help me. Thanks Ralfy it was right to the point. Don’t be generous with your marks IMO a true feedback is what we need to ear starting by the owner 👍
That seems like the perfect timing for this video. I am about to buy WB240634 at a Whisky Fair in Luxembourg for me and a friend and this video just pushed my confidence in this Signatory bottling even more. 😅👍🏻
A local store here in Victoria, BC (Canada) bottled a single cask non-chill filtered, no colour added, cask strength 19 yr old G&M bottling. It’s one of the finest whiskies I’ve tasted in years, so it’s shame that the official bottlings don’t hold a candle to it.
I had one bottle of legacy about 6 years ago. It was reasonably priced at 22 euros on offer. But after a few days, I gifted the bottle. I had some nice lightly peated flavours but was indeed too bland. This one I did not know about so thanks for sharing the knowledge dear Ralfy. Kindest regards, S. Grazie 🙏
Two of my favourite whisky's around 2011 used to be Ardmore Traditional and the Strathisla 12 (green bottle). I have not bothered buying their products since they reduced their ABV
Hi, thanks for sharing your knowledge! I am into whisky since 3 or 4 years, I have a bottle of Ardmore legacy because I wanted something cheap, simple, smooth, little bit smoky, citrus, fruity... Hopefully I discovered Ardmore through amazing independent bottles! 😉 Cheers
I miss the old Ardmore as well. Recently had a G&M version (1994), and It reminded me of the flavors of old. Independent bottlings of Ardmore is where the quality is these days
It was a few years ago, and I have not opened it yet, but I got a 20y Ardmore bottled by the distillery (must have been distilled even before Pernot Ricard took over). So, maybe they will add another bottling in the future.
The distance between the view “We make it as good as we possibly can” and the view “We make it only as good as need-be to sell” is impossible to measure fully. The distance is both immeasurable and sorry.
Does someone have a compariosn of Ardmore 12 Port Wood throughout the years? My first bottle of this was some 8 years ago (I was still quite unexperienced) and I absolutely loved it. I haven't tasted it very often since then. I never thought it was less than good, but it wasn't as magical anymore - which I have attributed to the much different contexts of what else I have tasted since then (including some quite magical independent Ardmores). Or has the quality actually changed so much?
Thank you Ralfy for the educational review. Was wondering how this Ardmore compares with other port cask whiskies in same price range eg Tomatin 14 or Talisker Port Ruighe? Sipped the latter while watching this review.
Highland Cream was the first 'good whisky' I ever bought, sometime in 2007. Even though i drowned it and drank to get pissed, i remember its unique (for me) velvety mouthfeel. I tried the Legacy and Highland Cream again recently, this time sipping them. I got bonfire smoke and very little else. There was some fruit hiding behind the smoke in the Legacy, but that's about it. Do you think its worth picking up a bottle of Travel Retail Ardmore Tradition just for the 46% version? Or should I steer clear and aim for another bottle to get the Fruit and Bonfire hit?
That's a bit of a bashing of the legacy which I think is nice, I find it's got a little bit of everything, smoke, sweetness etc I'm a novice whisky drinker but no newby but the legacy is nice i find. Each to their own I suppose😇
I love Ardmore. I am especially enjoying the very recent Signtory 100 proof 13yo Ardmore release. Cheaper than this 12yo port and in my opinion, significantly better. “Just saying, now you know” 😂
Interesting, I have avoided Ardmores generally because I once had a sip of the standard sanitized stuff. Sad to hear that even the better stuff is not much better. But Ralfy, as always, manages to coax out every little bit and find even the slightest reason for praise! If you need a definition for what a "Whisky Botherer" is, there you have it.
You call it Portwood matured, but the label says it's finished in portwood. What's the dividing line between considering a whisky to be finished in a second type of cask, vs fully matured in a single type? I've read bottles that declare how many years/months the product has spent in its finishing casks.
Hi there, and thanks for this review. I have a question, which is not about Ardmore. If we assume that when a whisky is put in a cask to age, over the years it loses both quantity and strength, how is it possible that there are 60, 70, or even 81 year old whiskies, bearing in mind that the strength should be minimum 40%, and that the age statement indicates the youngest whisky (if it is a blend, even from a single distillery)? By the way, I remember the Teacher's from the 1980s and it was a superb whisky, just as Johnie Walker and Ballantine's, to name but a few.
A bit of topic, but still new on my whisky journey i love sherry whiskeys up to now, i love glenallachie and glendronach before they changed the nc statement, can anyone recommend any good starter peated whiskys, i have had laphroaig and talisker 10, just trying to expand my journey as usal love the review
Since Bowmore was mentioned, and I was just thinking about it - I really don't get it. Yes, I know the distillery is capable of producing tasty malts, but the current lineup is so boring and there's no hype compared to other Islay brands, yet prices are unreasonable and availability - sketchy. Is it really so low in volume? There are so many other bottles that I am compelled to buy that I haven't bought Bowmore in years. Just like I don't buy Macallan or Dalmore. But I want Bowmore to be better and more interesting. And more reasonably priced for what it is.
Absolutely not. The Quinta Ruban is a beautiful, very well and thoughtfully made whisky, i agree with Ralfy on that and the lack of peat in it makes it incomparable anyway.
The general characterization of Beam-Suntory is utter nonsense from my point of view. I was involved in some capacity with the japanese in german wine producing and i experienced something completely different. The producer was asked regularly what he´d need to produce even better quality and they where talking pretty serious investments in infrastructure then. It may be the whiskies got worse within the last years, for which reason ever. Maybe the multinational corporation is responsible to some extent, that i don´t know. What i do know is, they are able to work differently than described here what is a perfect proof the problem is not inherent to the system.
Corporate culture always devolves. The best talent leave for greener pastures. The midwits remain and climb the career ladder. Then they enshrine their mediocrity as policy and "culture" and the whole thing ossifies into a self-preserving shell of its former self. This is well documented, there are even charts of it, how companies with good idea and passion start out, then eventually the "administrative" layer gets thicker until it is the only thing remaining. Another phenomenon is when careerists in management spend a few years implementing some stupid vision of theirs, just a feather for their cap, resume-padding, taking the organization down a primrose path, then jump ship for another role elsewhere, leaving everyone else to undo the consequences, waste resources and then change direction altogether. It absolutely is the nature of the beast, it just takes time.
Ended up buying a bottle of Ardmore Legacy in a supermarket several years ago. I thought it was a 'good offer'. Never again. I'll never touch Ardmore again - any of their range. Why would they even bottle and sell such stuff.
I bought one of the first batch when it came out. It was bland and onedimensional. Sweet, slightly sour red fruits and underwhelming funk. I never had the chance to try an IB but I already heard that they are far superior to the OBs.
Ralfy used to "keep it positive", but I love these scathing "rants of love", because he's actually trying to save the distilleries and the industry. Your best friends are those who aren't afraid to tell you things you don't want to hear (but need to). Thumbs up!
During WWII Ardmore distillery was used to gather in food from the farms and send it by rail to the troops. My mother was in the army there for much of the war.
I love Ardmore Legacy, first time I tried it, I couldn't believe what I'd bought but "there's no such thing as a bad whisky" so I went back and as I'm moving on in my whisky journey I have found it very good, lots of smoke and strong in flavour too, it's my opinion and its just an opinion but I like it. 👍🏻
Greeting Mr Ralfy, and thank you for another great review. I remember 10 years ago, this was my to go sigle malt, highly available, especially cheap at airport duty-free but I kost interest, now i know why. One legacy version that i recently really enjoyed is the Glengoyne Legacy series. It was on the clearance section of my local bottle shop. After tasting it, I went and bought another bottle, which unfortunately was the last one. Unfortunately, corporations ruin everything. I have seen the place that I have worked in the last 16 years , they hire people with little knowledge and those people try to make changes based on their 4 months time they have been there instead of asking those who have worked there for years. Many of our customers are my friends too and they tell me how disappointed they are and not gonna renew their contracts.
These bad reviews are so much more helpful than the good ones. Keep these up - help warn us away from the duffers.
Hi Ralfy, Thanks for the review and your honest opinion.
I had the 12 year old Port Wood in the past and I enjoyed it.
The Legacy is not very good.
One of two bottles of the Traditional old version with 46 percent is left in my stash. This one was better including a decent smoke taste.
I remember Teachers from the past and they were good. Today's Teachers are too sanitized. I drink it from time to time with ginger ale.
Maybe I need to find a sample of an independent Ardmore named Ardlair.
Thank you again for keeping up the fight for better whisky. You are our Robin Hood.
Cheers from a pat-pal im Germany
Teachers & Ginger Ale, a fine pair. Add a bit of lime and plenty of ice, and you have a delicious high-ball. Grüße aus Hamburg :)
Love what Kilchoman produce. 100% enjoying. Beautiful Farm Distillery always worth a visit when on Islay.
Beam Suntory is a strange one. They don’t have the Diageo size portfolio but they do a decent job with Glen Garioch and they haven’t totally screwed up Laphroaig despite their best efforts but it’s a crying shame what Bowmore is now and how how invisible Ardmore especially given how big a facility and the contribution it has made to whisky blends in particular. Auchentoshan is another dud that really shouldn’t be.
I see what they do in the states with their bourbons and I've lost hope they have any respect for anything other than 💰
I am guessing that certain distilleries are so resilient, that they shine "despite", not "because of" who runs them. It's a race to the bottom and to the lowest common denominator. 100% agree on Auchentoshan, too.
@@alexk3088 Laphroaig 10 even at 40% is still a great introduction to Islay heavy peat style. QuarterCask for price and 10 cask strength are both great drams. I avoid Select and I’m not keen on Laphroaig in Sherry wood so Lore, Triple Wood etc I struggled with.
@@thealembicdiary1814 I think Suntory lucked out with the 'Japanese whisky' craze. They have no fricking clue about making good whisky. Either that, or they want to kill all competition to Japanese whisky.
Thanks Ralfy, as a new Scotch / Irish whiskey drinker you have been so helpful in steering me down the proper road. I otherwise would be drinking the over hyped corporate swill that other uneducated newbies drink. Keep educating and pointing out the distilleries that put profit above quality, that information alone is priceless.
Beam / Suntory, the makers of Jim Beam (bottom shelf bourbon swill) and others need a good supply of deserved negative press . Too bad they make most of their money off of people who think flavor comes from coke or fruit juice instead of appreciating good whiskey.
*The Ardmore Legacy US version at 46% is a fine dram for the price. The previous version had a lot to offer, especially since it had double maturation. They changed the release a few years ago, but I used to get it at $40. That’s a very complement malt for the price. It’s night and day from the latest iteration at 40% using what I think are lessor casks. If you can find the US version with the older packaging, it’s a very nice value.
Fully agree. The old Ardmore Traditional Cask was a nice, characterful whisky at a very good price. The Legacy... well, I only bought one bottle of that and won't be buying another.
I still remember a bottle of Bowmore 10y Tempest that I had a decade ago. It pains me to know what they are able to make and yet they decide to put out the horrible swill of what are their core range offerings. They could do so much better and as you said Ralfy, same goes for Ardmore.
I've had a couple of bottles of Ardlair from MOM''s own range , 13yrd single cask which i really liked at a great price £44
I am so afraid to get a Ardmore now it won’t help me. Thanks Ralfy it was right to the point. Don’t be generous with your marks IMO a true feedback is what we need to ear starting by the owner 👍
That seems like the perfect timing for this video. I am about to buy WB240634 at a Whisky Fair in Luxembourg for me and a friend and this video just pushed my confidence in this Signatory bottling even more. 😅👍🏻
right now i also have a port cask in the glass. A Arren port cask.
A local store here in Victoria, BC (Canada) bottled a single cask non-chill filtered, no colour added, cask strength 19 yr old G&M bottling. It’s one of the finest whiskies I’ve tasted in years, so it’s shame that the official bottlings don’t hold a candle to it.
Morning Ralfy, from warm Western Australia. Keep up the good work
I had one bottle of legacy about 6 years ago. It was reasonably priced at 22 euros on offer. But after a few days, I gifted the bottle. I had some nice lightly peated flavours but was indeed too bland. This one I did not know about so thanks for sharing the knowledge dear Ralfy. Kindest regards, S. Grazie 🙏
Two of my favourite whisky's around 2011 used to be Ardmore Traditional and the Strathisla 12 (green bottle). I have not bothered buying their products since they reduced their ABV
Hi, thanks for sharing your knowledge! I am into whisky since 3 or 4 years, I have a bottle of Ardmore legacy because I wanted something cheap, simple, smooth, little bit smoky, citrus, fruity...
Hopefully I discovered Ardmore through amazing independent bottles! 😉
Cheers
Yes yo do see Ardlair. The independent bottler The Ultimate from the Netherlands had one 2 months ago.
I highly recommend Murray McDavid's Ardmore 11yo @56.7% (Oloroso finish). It is still available for about 85 points.
I miss the old Ardmore as well. Recently had a G&M version (1994), and It reminded me of the flavors of old. Independent bottlings of Ardmore is where the quality is these days
Yeah, these wrere
I have a recent bottle of Legacy and enjoy it… However, I have no experience with prior versions so…..
It was a few years ago, and I have not opened it yet, but I got a 20y Ardmore bottled by the distillery (must have been distilled even before Pernot Ricard took over). So, maybe they will add another bottling in the future.
The distance between the view “We make it as good as we possibly can” and the view “We make it only as good as need-be to sell” is impossible to measure fully. The distance is both immeasurable and sorry.
Good Evening 😊 Awesome Review👌🏽Have a wonderful day & Cheers🍻 from South Africa 🇿🇦
Douglas Laing do some very nice versions of Ardmore 46% straight from the cask , never had a bad one
thanks for the vid as always. think spring.
Does someone have a compariosn of Ardmore 12 Port Wood throughout the years?
My first bottle of this was some 8 years ago (I was still quite unexperienced) and I absolutely loved it. I haven't tasted it very often since then. I never thought it was less than good, but it wasn't as magical anymore - which I have attributed to the much different contexts of what else I have tasted since then (including some quite magical independent Ardmores). Or has the quality actually changed so much?
I had the misfortune of being given a bottle of Legacy. It was utter dreck.
Thank you Ralfy for the educational review. Was wondering how this Ardmore compares with other port cask whiskies in same price range eg Tomatin 14 or Talisker Port Ruighe? Sipped the latter while watching this review.
Highland Cream was the first 'good whisky' I ever bought, sometime in 2007. Even though i drowned it and drank to get pissed, i remember its unique (for me) velvety mouthfeel.
I tried the Legacy and Highland Cream again recently, this time sipping them. I got bonfire smoke and very little else. There was some fruit hiding behind the smoke in the Legacy, but that's about it.
Do you think its worth picking up a bottle of Travel Retail Ardmore Tradition just for the 46% version? Or should I steer clear and aim for another bottle to get the Fruit and Bonfire hit?
That's a bit of a bashing of the legacy which I think is nice, I find it's got a little bit of everything, smoke, sweetness etc I'm a novice whisky drinker but no newby but the legacy is nice i find. Each to their own I suppose😇
Spot on, I have been there more than I like. Is it good, do I like it? Thanks for the honest and direct point of view.
I love Ardmore. I am especially enjoying the very recent Signtory 100 proof 13yo Ardmore release. Cheaper than this 12yo port and in my opinion, significantly better. “Just saying, now you know” 😂
For me the 12yo ist way more complex and delicate, the 100 proof good but it only tastes like cooked bacon.
Just bought the Legacy 15 minutes ago hahaha. Well to be honest I basically use it as a backbone to blend.
Interesting, I have avoided Ardmores generally because I once had a sip of the standard sanitized stuff.
Sad to hear that even the better stuff is not much better. But Ralfy, as always, manages to coax out every little bit and find even the slightest reason for praise!
If you need a definition for what a "Whisky Botherer" is, there you have it.
You call it Portwood matured, but the label says it's finished in portwood. What's the dividing line between considering a whisky to be finished in a second type of cask, vs fully matured in a single type? I've read bottles that declare how many years/months the product has spent in its finishing casks.
I had the 2015 release, which was a fantastic release. I guess the quality dropped.
I've only ever seen the Legacy here in Ontario, Canada.
Hi there, and thanks for this review. I have a question, which is not about Ardmore. If we assume that when a whisky is put in a cask to age, over the years it loses both quantity and strength, how is it possible that there are 60, 70, or even 81 year old whiskies, bearing in mind that the strength should be minimum 40%, and that the age statement indicates the youngest whisky (if it is a blend, even from a single distillery)? By the way, I remember the Teacher's from the 1980s and it was a superb whisky, just as Johnie Walker and Ballantine's, to name but a few.
So sad 8yrs ago the Legacy was decent, I had the first bad bottles 3ir4 years ago 😢
I think their age stated bottles have always been solid, just not always available, which seems a missed opportunity
Couldn't agree more regarding the basic Ardmore. Ralfy I never heard you opine on the viscosity of the spirit, does it matter?
Tomatin 18yo was that way for me. I tried to convince myself I liked it they the whole bottle 🤪
A bit of topic, but still new on my whisky journey i love sherry whiskeys up to now, i love glenallachie and glendronach before they changed the nc statement, can anyone recommend any good starter peated whiskys, i have had laphroaig and talisker 10, just trying to expand my journey as usal love the review
Ralfy is Yoda.
Since Bowmore was mentioned, and I was just thinking about it - I really don't get it. Yes, I know the distillery is capable of producing tasty malts, but the current lineup is so boring and there's no hype compared to other Islay brands, yet prices are unreasonable and availability - sketchy. Is it really so low in volume? There are so many other bottles that I am compelled to buy that I haven't bought Bowmore in years. Just like I don't buy Macallan or Dalmore. But I want Bowmore to be better and more interesting. And more reasonably priced for what it is.
Is it fair to judge this against the Quinta Ruban 14?
Absolutely not. The Quinta Ruban is a beautiful, very well and thoughtfully made whisky, i agree with Ralfy on that and the lack of peat in it makes it incomparable anyway.
Ardmore triple wood seems a better available option
The general characterization of Beam-Suntory is utter nonsense from my point of view. I was involved in some capacity with the japanese in german wine producing and i experienced something completely different. The producer was asked regularly what he´d need to produce even better quality and they where talking pretty serious investments in infrastructure then.
It may be the whiskies got worse within the last years, for which reason ever. Maybe the multinational corporation is responsible to some extent, that i don´t know. What i do know is, they are able to work differently than described here what is a perfect proof the problem is not inherent to the system.
Corporate culture always devolves. The best talent leave for greener pastures. The midwits remain and climb the career ladder. Then they enshrine their mediocrity as policy and "culture" and the whole thing ossifies into a self-preserving shell of its former self. This is well documented, there are even charts of it, how companies with good idea and passion start out, then eventually the "administrative" layer gets thicker until it is the only thing remaining. Another phenomenon is when careerists in management spend a few years implementing some stupid vision of theirs, just a feather for their cap, resume-padding, taking the organization down a primrose path, then jump ship for another role elsewhere, leaving everyone else to undo the consequences, waste resources and then change direction altogether. It absolutely is the nature of the beast, it just takes time.
Ended up buying a bottle of Ardmore Legacy in a supermarket several years ago. I thought it was a 'good offer'. Never again. I'll never touch Ardmore again - any of their range. Why would they even bottle and sell such stuff.
I bought one of the first batch when it came out. It was bland and onedimensional. Sweet, slightly sour red fruits and underwhelming funk. I never had the chance to try an IB but I already heard that they are far superior to the OBs.
🙂☕👍
❤👌🥃
Hey bro 😅😅
I stopped watching at the mention of caramel color - not interested in this one.