Welcome back. Today we will be taking a look at four bottles from Anam na h-Alba, an independent bottler from Germany. I already talked about independent bottlers in this article. Anam na h-Alba means the soul of Scotland. What I think is really interesting is that this name is taken by a company that is not from Scotland. If I didn't know they are from Germany, I would have assumed that it's a Scottish company. But no they are not. The company was founded by Thomas Skowronek in 2012.

"My name is Thomas Skowronek and whisky is my passion. In 2012 I combined pleasure with work and turned my passion into a career."

"The two most important criteria here are quality and taste! Each cask is filled individually, just as nature allowed the whisky to mature - cask strength, without cchill filtration and without coloring/caramel (E150). We have grown steadily over the last 4 years and have had a small shop in Oberhausen since December 2015. The idea behind it was not have a large whisky shop, but rather a small "whisky room" with special and sometimes exclusive whiskies. But before we ventured into the idea of building the shop, we had an idea to organize a whisky exhibition here in the Ruhr area. It took almost a year from idea to reality and we can say with pride that the "project" was a success.

We had another success at the beginning of 2016. Since then we have been the exclusive German importer of spirits from Strathearn Distillery, Scotland and Wagging Finger, Netherlands."

The whiskies we are taking a look at are as follows.

• Tempting Tanya (Lagavulin) 2008-2020 - Marsala finish 54.9%
  
• Ardmore 2009-2020 - PX cask 55.8%
  
• Speyside Distillery 1995-2015 - Bourbon hogsheads 54.4%
  
• Bród Aontroma (Bushmills) 2006-2018 - First-fill Bourbon 58.1%
  

This whole article was made possible by my friend & the editor of dramazin.hu Norbert Tölgyesi. He sent me over the four samples I will be reviewing in this article. Thank you again, my friend.

Tempting Tanya (Lagavulin) 2008-2020 Marsala finish - Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 54.9%

My friend Norbert, who held a tasting from the bottles you can see on the picture above had a conversation with the founder and he said: "It's a distillery from the south of Islay, it's very famous but it's not Laphroaig or Ardbeg." That leaves us with Port Ellen and Lagavulin. It can't be a Port Ellen with a distillation date of 2008. So yes, it can only be a Lagavulin. 

On a side note, Port Ellen just reopened a few days ago. So we can expect new Port Ellen bottlings in the near future. Hip-hip hooray.

Marsala is a fortified wine, dry or sweet, produced in the region surrounding the Italian city of Marsala in Sicily.  

Nose: Very strong nose. Extreme sweetness from the Marsala casks. Medicinal smoke. Astringent. Very strong leading wine notes. Some nuttiness.

Taste: Marsala sweetness. Red fruits and figs. Medicinal peat. Earthy, strong and hefty. Malty note. Maybe even too sweet.

Finish: Long and dry but very sweet.

Overall this is a very well put together Lagavulin. Very different from the original bottlings that come from the distillery. I liked this better than the legendary 16 year old. 86 / 100

Ardmore 2009-2020 PX cask - Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 55.8%

Ardmore distillery is a single malt Scotch whisky distillery, located in the village of Kennethmont, Scotland. The distillery is owned and operated by Beam Suntory, an American subsidiary of Suntory Holdings of Osaka, Japan. 

Ardmore is mainly a component to the Teacher's Highland Cream blended whisky. They have a few original bottlings from the distillery too but they are not too popular. I don't know why. I really enjoy Ardmore's flavour profile. It's just my kind of smoke and taste. Thankfully they sell a lot of whisky to independent bottlers and we can taste lots of Ardmore bottles with great cask finishes, maturations presented at cask strength and natural color such as this.

Pedro Ximénez (also known as PX and many other variations) is the name of a white Spanish wine grape variety grown in several Spanish wine regions of Montilla-Moriles. Here it is used to produce a varietal wine, an intensely sweet, dark, dessert sherry. It is made by drying the grapes under the hot sun, concentrating the sweetness (similar to straw wine production), which are then used to create a thick, black liquid with a strong taste of raisins and molasses that is fortified and aged in solera. 

Nose: Yes. That typical Ardmore-y highland smoke. Earthy peat, ash. Going over these two greeting notes we are getting strong citrus, toffee and vanilla aromas. Some dried peaches and pears. Getting a hint of sea salt. Lots of sherry in the form of figs, raisins. Complex, lovely nose.

Taste: Now this is amazing. So strange but so good. Coal smoke and earthy notes. Wonderful. Second sip once you are aquainted with these notes you are getting the toffee, caramel, citrus and peach notes. Some soft sherry notes with the aformentioned highland smoke. BUT after that yeast appears with mushrooms. Quite a lot of mushrooms to be fair. It's in harmony with the sweetness of the sherry and makes a nice balance. Sweet and sour, oaky and smooth.

Finish: Very long finish on this one with a hint of peat and sherry sweetness. After that sourness takes over.

Overall this is an either love it or hate it whisky. I happen to love it. It's very complex and very deep. Very well put together whisky. Sadly I only had a small sample. 91 / 100

Speyside Distillery 1995-2015 Bourbon hogsheads - Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 54.4%

There is not much to be said about this bottle. It's the product of the Speyside Distillery. You might be familiar with The Spey Single Malt. That is their original bottling. 

Speyside Distillery, nestled within the magnificent Cairngorm Mountains is widely acknowledged as being the prettiest of all Scotland's distilleries. Originally a barley mill and croft dating back to the 1700's, it finally closed in 1965. Over the next 25 years from 1965 it was slowly and lovingly converted into a single malt distillery, which then started producing spirit on Christmas Day 1990. The distillery draws it's water from the Spey River tributary... The River Tromie using the old mill lade, which originally ran the waterwheel that powered the old mill.

Make sure to check them out here if you have not heard about them yet.

Nose: Citrus fruits. Quite raw and sour for 20 years. Very strong aromas for sure. Spicy malt emerges along with apples, pears. Becomes quite floral.

Taste: Quite hefty and strong even alcoholic on arrival. Unfriendly. Too strong. Going over to sour notes and rotten apples. Some white wine and fresh baked bread. With some added water the sour notes disappear and it gets very very sweet. Not my style of whisky for sure.

Finish: Long, lingering with a spicy sour note and some oakiness.

Overall this is not my favourite. It feels younger than it is. It is not my style of whisky. It's not bad but not too good either. I think this is average at best. 83 / 100 

Bród Aontroma (Bushmills) 2006-2018 First-fill Bourbon - Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 58.1%

This is an Irish Single Malt whisky which was triple distilled and aged 12 years in FF Bourbon barrels. It comes from the Bushmills distillery. I wrote about Bushmills in a previous article of mine. You can read it here if you are interested in the history of the distillery.

Nose: Right away I notice that this is Irish whisky. Typical green apple, big malty note.Very strong apricot notes alongside some fruit jam and perfume. I like this a lot. It's very massive and extremely sweet BUT it's balanced.

Taste: Sweet malt, green apples and pears. Papaya and apricot jam. Spicy notes emerge and a hint of mint from the abv. Even so the taste is very balanced and extremely smooth thanks to the triple distillation. Very nice dram.

Finish: Lingers for a very long time, shows more than 12 years of age. Vanilla, green apples in the mouth.

Overall this is the best Bushmills I have ever had. It has such a complexity and deepness of fresh fruit and malt that it's just crazy. If I could I'd definitely buy a full bottle of this. 90 / 100

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed. To many more. Sláinte.