The Teacher's Pet

Every field and venture has it's dangers. Being a whisky afficianado is no exception, and while some are well known (having a dram too many of the Laphroig and drunk-dialing an ex) some are a bit more...exotic. As a for instance, last October my esteemed WhiskeyBro Mark and I were perusing the plethora of possible pours at WhiskeyFest SF. If there was a bit of stagger to our step, well, it had been a long night. We encountered the Dalmore table with gusto, but not quite as much as the fiery Scot who walked us through the tasting. In fact, "fiery" and "gusto" don't quite do justice to the force we reckoned with. Suffice to say that we did not treat the Scotch in front of us with sufficient gravity, which resulted in, well....ice chucking. That's right ladies and gentlemen, Richard Paterson himself, award-winning, third generation, master blender for Whyte & Mackay threw ice at my brother-in-law. Not with sufficient force to damage anything beyond an ego, but there you go.

I myself came within a hair's breadth of this same fate at the Whiskeys of the World Expo here in San Francisco last month. Yet again, it was the last table of the evening I approached, and a kilted Scot poured me a dram of the Ardmore Traditional Cask. I made the mistake of describing it as "quite nice". This resulted in an incredulous repetition and disparaging of my masculinity. Truth be told, "quite nice" is nowhere near an adequate description of that particular malt. The second sip opened my eyes a bit, and it ended up being one of my top picks from the entire event.I have since been lucky enough to track down a bottle, this stuff is great, but it just hit the market and isn't being released in huge quantities.

Ardmore is a distillery that has been in operation since 1898, but almost all of their production has gone into blends, most notably Teacher's, with the exception of some independent bottlings.

This Highland malt carries no age statement, though it has been quarter cask-finished. It is one of the best balanced whiskies I've had the pleasure of tasting. Smokey, but not overpoweringly so, sweet, but not cloying, and sweeter than one usually finds without the involvement of Sherry.

The nose: sweet at first, vanilla, butterscotch, and apple. Then a hint of smoke, some oaky tones, and a mild herbal, almost grassy tail.

The palate: Again, sweet at first, oily, oak and peat, then stone fruits(peach, plum) and more vanilla.

The Finish: Light and airy, hints of spice, more peach, and some tropical fruit, then a maltiness right at the end. Long and complex.