Signatory 100 Proof Highland Malts: Tullibardine, Glen Ord, Macduff, Blair Athol, Ardmore

The living room is still a mess, so here's another video of spirits reviews from the back porch! And today we're celebrating the 100 Proof Edition series, Signatory Vintage's project of absolutely machine gunning malt whisky onto the market at silly low prices (presumably to get some cash on hand before the market fully crashes). I love it, it's my chance to pick up some nerdy distilleries at aggressive price point and the ones I've reviewed have been very good so far (see    • Speyside Backbenchers of Diageo II: Linkwo...   and    • Speyside Backbenchers Beyond Diageo: Milto...   ). I have a bunch of Speyside stuff waiting in the queue but today it's all about the Northern, Central, and Eastern Highlands. We've got bottlings from Blair Athol and Macduff, which I've never reviewed before, as well as Tullibardine (cf    • 3 Malts Under New Management: Tullibardine...   ), Glen Ord (cf    • Insert "Ord" Pun Here: Ultimate Glen Ord 2...   ), and Ardmore (cf    • Three IB Ardmores: Ultimate Ardlair 2011 1...   ). Stats:

Tullibardine 2015 9 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Signatory 100 Proof Edition No. 44 (Blackford, Perthshire, bottled by Signatory; 1st and 2nd Fill Oloroso Sherry Butts, bottled 4/25/25; natural color, unchillfiltered; 57.1% ABV), 87/100
Glen Ord 2012 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Signatory 100 Proof Edition No. 43 (Muir of Ord, Ross-shire, bottled by Signatory; 1st Fill Bourbon Barrels, bottled 4/24/25; natural color, unchillfiltered; 57.1% ABV), 89/100
Macduff 2007 16 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Signatory Exceptional Cask 100 Proof Edition No. 3 (Macduff, Aberdeenshire, bottled by Signatory; 1st Fill Oloroso Sherry Butts, bottled 3/22/24; natural color, unchillfiltered; 57.1% ABV), 87+/100
Blair Athol 2007 17 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Signatory Exceptional Cask 100 Proof Edition No. 12 (Pitlochry, Perthshire, bottled by Signatory; 1st Fill Oloroso Sherry Butts, bottled 6/18/25; natural color, unchillfiltered; 57.1% ABV), 83/100
Ardmore 2012 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Signatory 100 Proof Edition No. 21 (Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire, bottled by Signatory; 2nd Fill Ex-Islay Bourbon Barrels, bottled 8/6/24; natural color, unchillfiltered; 57.1% ABV), 88/100

So, the Blair Athol out of the way first. It's not good. It's one of the cheapest 17yo malts you'll ever buy, true, but it's aggressively woody, acrid, and unbalanced. Too much wood, Mozart. Let's move on.

Everything else is actually really really good! The Tullibardine is a sherry bomb leaning hard into hot chocolate and orange and I absolutely love it. The Glen Ord is the best thing here, full stop, with a mix of malinae family fruits, vanilla, rocks, wax, herbs, and grunge that puts a lot of Clynelishes (Clynelishen? Clynelishi?) to shame. The Macduff has a really unique honeycomb-maritime-muesli-paper mache character that's really really fun, with the sherry complimenting the weirdness of the distillate rather than crushing it. And the Ardmore is just a darn good spin on the old peat/vanilla formula, with a ton of little details (barnyard! flowers! fruit!) elevating it a good couple of points. So yeah, go give SV your money, just not for the Blair Athol.

Extra special thanks to my Different Spirits on Patreon (  / differentspirits  ) -

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