Ardmore 25 yo 1997 (48.6%, Elixir Distillers, The Single Malts of Scotland)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: gently lemony, sooty and on bailed hay, anthracite and things like crushed oatcakes and laundered fabrics. Slightly muddy too, in that peculiar farmyard way that Ardmore often displays. I also find a wee hint of olive brine. Mouth: typically rather fat and with a slowly unfurling peat smoke profile. Drying peat, with a lot of turfy vibes, mineral oils, many more sooty impressions, clay, metal polish, baked potato skins, boiled cereals that suggest pure mash water and hot draff! I also find it really quite earthy and vegetal, with impressions of baked artichoke and parsnip! Finish: medium, some threads of honey, smoked mead, more putty, clay and coal smoke. Comments: charismatic whisky, but perhaps a tad tough and slightly austere in this instance. Feels a bit younger than 25yo. 
SGP: 463 - 85 points.

Ardmore 26 yo 1997/2024 (50.3%, The Whisky Exchange 'Seasons', cask #901299, de-char, re-char hogshead)
Colour: gold. Nose: a more honeyed profile here, with sweeter cereal notes, lightly smoked olive oil, caramelised banana and some classical touches of camphor and hessian. With water: tiger balm, soot, camphor and putty, with a little sheep wool oil as well. Mouth: again, it's a similar sort of experience, but a slightly sweeter profile with more mead, honeys and some rather lovely waxy notes coming through. A little herbal as well, with bay leaf and mint tea. With water: chalkier, drier, more earthy, more peppery and a little more decidedly peaty! Finish: good length, nicely sooty, smoky and peaty in a highly classical and positive Ardmorian way. A very impressive finish! Comments: I would say water is obligatory here. It's also more of a palate whisky than a nose whisky for me. Gathered one or two extra points with that lovely, peaty finish. 
SGP:463 - 87 points.

Ardmore 25 yo 1997/2023 (50.1%, Gordon & MacPhail 'Connoisseur's Choice' for Kensington Wine Market, cask #5564, refill sherry hogshead, 232 bottles)
Ardmore plus sherry makes us think of some utterly sublime old, very scarce official bottlings. Admittedly, they were decades ago, but modern Ardmore can also work very well in sherry... Colour: amber. Nose: a different ballgame altogether. Old leather pipe tobacco pouches, dark chocolate with sea salt, black miso paste, soy sauce and some excellent beef bourguignon. This fusion of old-style refill sherry plus older style soft peaty distillate is just impossible to resist I'm afraid. With water: black tea, olive tapenade and woodruff. This combination of earthy and umami qualities persists beautifully. Mouth: earthy, umami and with many more notes of miso, salted liquorice, dark chocolate and camphor. I'd also add into the bargain some black truffle, fig jam and prune eau de vie. With water: a continuation of this earthy / umami profile, but with a little more presence from the darker fruit notes. Goes towards some old Armagnac and walnut wine. Finish: long, full of bitter herbs, medicinal roots and impressions of old herbal liqueurs and aniseed. Comments: Makes you wonder what the first fill of this lovely old sherry cask would have been? I am a sucker for this profile that manages rich sherry and soft peat but everything in easy balance. 
SGP: 462 - 90 points.

Ardmore 20 yo 1992/2013 (51.3%, The Auld Alliance, refill barrel, 218 bottles)
We are very, very late... Colour: pale gold. Nose: very different again, this is going decidedly more old school with immediate notes of exotic fruits, sharp gooseberry, waxes, pepper, mineral oil and various medicinal impressions such as tiger balm and cough medicine. Excellent! With water: lemon oil, sheep wool, orange blossom and a very delicate, lightly ashy peat smoke. Mouth: an immediate and superb mix of soft exotic notes, bandages, sheep wool, wet rocks and mineral oils. One of those whiskies that also makes you think of great white wines (unsurprising given who selected it). It's also got that much more pronounced and older style waxy, textural profile that feels so satisfying. With water: becomes amazingly salty and peppery, developing with celery salt, toasted fennel seed, miso, seaweed crackers and many wee briny and lemony touches. Finish: long, pristinely drying, full of coastal notes, brittle peat smoke and some very sharp and delicate exotic fruit notes that bring us full circle. Comments: a terrific wee Ardmore, totally old school, precise, entertaining and impeccably charming. A great selection and I would say a very emblematic example of how this can be such a wonderful distillate. 
SGP: 463 - 90 points.