There are whiskies you buy because of the label. And then there are whiskies you buy because of the person behind the cask.
Two bottles went head to head at home this weekend. Very dull looking and not much external packaging.
In the left corner: a private single-cask bourbon bottling from Aqvavitae. Whisky geeks know this as the label of Roy Duff, one of the true megastars of the whisky vlogging world. Roy has a lucky number, 55, and wherever he can, he bottles to it. This one is a 6-year-old from Ardnahoe, on Islay, at a clean 55% ABV. My dram came from Bottle 745 of 762.
In the right corner: something altogether more unexpected. A 10-year-old bourbon cask from Pelter, bottled at 57.8%. Pelter isn’t known for whisky at all. It’s an Israeli winery, located in the north of the country. Therefore, this cask has spent its whole life maturing at an altitude of around 1,000 metres. And as this is Israel, by most reckonings the country’s humidity does the work of about 15 years compared to a Scottish dunnage.
Ardnahoe deserves a mention. It’s one of Islay’s newest distilleries. It has only started to release bottlings about two years ago, and the whisky community has taken to it fast.
Now imagine my setting. I had the time to pour two healthy drams and not to rush them. I sniffed and swirled, and then started the process again. And I certainly did not rush the tastings.
For the record, I rarely add water to my tastings.
Colour: Both a similar light amber gold. The Pelter perhaps a shade darker, which tracks given the extra time in cask.
Nose: This is where Ardnahoe pulled ahead early. I could pick up darker fruit, even a touch of watermelon. Pelter, by comparison, was surprisingly plain on the nose.
Palate: Ardnahoe was a little rough round the edges, but genuinely lovely: light summer fruits, apple, pear, a soft and pleasant finish.
And then I picked up the dram of Pelter. It was a different world entirely. Thicker. Creamier. Vanilla oozing through, fruit across the whole rainbow, dark summer fruits, biscuity bourbon notes. Barley sugar. Most important, it came with a finish that had me going back for more before I’d even noticed the glass was nearly empty. You can tell from the photos that there isn’t much of that bottle left.
Would I buy either again?
Without hesitation. The trouble is, both are already sold out.
The real surprise here isn’t that Ardnahoe makes fine whisky. That much was expected.
It’s that Pelter does. This is a winery that turned up at Whisky Live Tel Aviv last September almost unannounced, with two offerings: an eight-year-old with a gorgeous wine-cask finish, and this ten-year-old. I snapped it up on the spot and haven’t regretted it once. A friend told me tha t he picked up a bottlet a specialist whisky shop in Israel about three months ago — so they are out there, if you know where to look.
I’m already hoping Pelter shows up again at Whisky Live in September 2026 with something new. If they do, I’ll be first in the queue.
