Review #594 - SMWS 66.229 'Tarred and Re-Feathered' - Ardmore 15 Year

Ardmore - this Beam-Suntory distillery shares ownership with a couple other well-known peated Scotch brands, Laphroaig and Bowmore. While these brands famously make excellent spirit, they generally are also bottled with lackluster presentation, with Bowmore and Ardmore being the worst of the offenders. Because of that, we often look to independently bottled versions of these single malts.

Much of the production at Ardmore goes into blends, too - the Teacher's blend, especially, has a strong influence from the distillery. Ardmore is typically used to add a peaty or smoky influence to a whisky; they actually produce both peated and unpeated whisky, but they're known for the peaty style. The whisky supposedly carries a peat level around 12ppm to 14ppm, but at times, we've found it to taste more smoky than other whiskies in that range.

Luckily, there's plenty of IB Ardmore to go around - many independents are able to buy and bottle the malt. This single cask from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society was aged for 15 years in total; the first 12 year were spent in an ex-bourbon hogshead, and a finishing period of roughly 3 years an American oak PX sherry cask came next. After that time aging, the whisky still sits at a potent strength of 59.4% ABV; the SMWS released it in their 'Peated' flavor profile.

SMWS 66.229 'Tarred and Re-Feathered' - Ardmore 15 Year

Scotland/Highland - Single Malt

Price: USD 170 (2025)

Age Statement: 15 Years

Strength: 59.4% ABV

Cask Makeup: Ex-bourbon hogshead, finished in a first fill American oak Pedro Ximenez sherry hogshead

Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled July 23, 2007; 259 bottles

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 15 months; bottles at 50%, 100%, and 90% (blind tasting) fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes

Nose: Sharp and smoky to start - relatively strong peat, with accents of charcoal and industrial oils. There's some mild funk and herbal notes, but quickly we get into sweet and savory scents: red wine, cinnamon, hard salami, some peppery pork barbecue. More savory with time, and we get a soft metallic copper note, too.

Palate: Quite complex - sweetness from caramel and rich dried fruits like prune and cranberry; spice from peppery oak and wood smoke. The peat is fizzy and somewhat strong, with a campfire sort of element. Red wine and wine gums arrive, as well as orange and a fizzy sensation. In the end, it's salt and oily sausage; the mouthfeel is medium-thick.

Finish: Lingering saline peat, lots of smoke, but behind that, we get strawberries and balsamic, orange, clove - lots of detail flavors. Hard smoky sausage, a bit of industrial funk, and subtle dark dried fruit like fig arrive; it's a long finish.

Final Note: This is an excellent whisky - a great example of the reasons that Ardmore is quickly rising to become one of our favorite distilleries. Tons of character when it's presented well, with this particular cask showing a lot of savory notes due to the combination of smoky spirit and sherry cask influence. While some Ardmore whiskies do come across as more 'lightly' peated, this had a relatively strong smoky element; despite that, there was plenty of room in the flavor profile for the other flavors to shine.

Value is actually okay here, better than average for SMWS bottles, which are generally quite expensive here in the US. We're definitely willing to take a risk on future SMWS Ardmore bottlings due to good experiences like this one.

Our Average Rating: 8.6 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 6.20

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.