The Whisky Show 2021, Part 9/11: Adelphi

Following on neatly from the Springbank masterclass [Part 8], we’ve a few more Campbeltown treasures to try, courtesy of independent bottler & distillery owners, Adelphi.

At this stage of the show/festival, notes have become very sparse. 

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[Springbank] Hazelburn 2000/2021 21yo Adelphi cask #12 [247 bts] 43.4% WB88.50[12]

• C: Vanilla-ey malt,… clean, easy chew,… “believed to be Hazelburn”.

Scores 86 points

Springbank 1998/2021 22yo Adelphi refill sherry hogshead #426 [239 bts] 46.3% WB89.90[25]

• C: The sherry is over-dominant [so of course it’s popular on that bar alone],… but it is all very delicious all the same.

Scores 86 points

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There are some amazingly generous offerings on free-pour at Adelphi. And to think, 25yo Balblair is a dream dram – pah!

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Glen Grant 1992/2021 28yo Adelphi cask #141976 [185 bts] 52.5% WB88.85[15]

• C: A very pleasing gloopy sweet malt.

Scores 87 points

Mortlach 1986/2020 34yo Adelphi Refill bourbon cask #2035 [224 bts] 54.2% WB90.78[30]

• C: A sweet vegetal funky malt that trumps Adelphi’s excellent Glen Grant by one. 

Scores 88 points

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Zuidam 1999/2021 19yo Adelphi First-fill PX sherry hogshead #2547 [165 bts] 52.9% WB86.94[21]

Pronounced ‘Jowdom’ [thank you Alex], Whiskybase lists only two bottlings under the distillery’s own name. This is one of them.

• C: With a fair amount of oloroso and pancake-y vanilla,…. this is only my third whisky from Zuidam and it’s another very decent one. 

Scores 85 points

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And there’s more.

With the addition of Ardnamurchan [WLP] to their portfolio, Adelphi has become quite the show stand in its own right!

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Ardnamurchan 2015/2020 5yo Adelphi/Maclean & Bruce oloroso casks #332-333 [1333 bts] 59.3% WB87.71[43]

This bottling carries quite some kudos, now fetching three times the [already specialist] rrp on the ‘secondary’.

• C: With some engaging push n pull action, all is good with this bottling. Tasty stuff from a good cask, naturally.

Scores 85 points

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Ardnamurchan [2021] Un-Ob bourbon cask sample #191 +/-61%

Demonstrating yet more show value, it’s far more convent for a southerner to get to London to try a single cask sample than on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. After visiting Ardnamurchan in the summer [WLP], I wish the distillery would have one or two single cask tasters to offer its parched pilgrims,…. perhaps in the style of [inert~lined] ‘living’ casks as seen at Glen Moray [WLP], for example.

• C: Very naked vanilla/bourbon-y young spirit with an oily weight. [Not scored]

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Ardnamurchan 07.21:05 [2021] Ob. Release #5 [19998 bts] 46.8% WB85.12[60] WF87

• N: 50/50 peated/unpeated,…. the peat is present but its approach is from the side.
• T&F: Youthful [duh],… and in a good way. A few references to other distilleries ensue.
• C: Really excellent young malt. [EDIT: this is release #5 that I recently tried before [WLP85]. One more mark today. All eyes on Ardnamurchan.

Scores 86 points

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To finish off here, how about a rum? Why not! It’s that time of the festival where anything goes, and it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve gone to a whisky show and come away with a bottle of the sugar cane spirit – from Adelphi as well [WLP90: #JM2]. Let’s see if #JM3 floats my boat.

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Clarendon 2008/2021 12yo Adelphi cask #JM3 [402 bts] 56.8%

therumlab.com tells us ‘Clarendon Distillers Limited (CDL) lies on six acres of land in the Monymusk Estate, one of the oldest sugar cane plantations in Jamaica, located in Lionel Town, Clarendon. The distillery built in 1949 was initially owned by the Monymusk Sugar Factory. Through decades, the distillery’s ownership has been transferred to different companies’.

• C: Adelphi bottle some cracking rums and this is no exception. I find this left-field, even for a Jamaican rum – a savoury agricole-y style that’s fabulously faithful to the ‘first press’. Can’t go wrong here. Fabulous stuff.

Scores 89 points

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Next up, The Artful Dodger [in Part 10].

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END

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