Drammers Club: Ardnamurchan Tasting with Carl Crafts

September 19, 2025

Though we just got back from Scotland, there was a Drammers event that featured a distillery that Liz is fond of: Ardnamurchan. So we signed up and headed out to join some fellow whisky lovers for a Chicago tasting.

There were more than the usual number of drams tonight. Funny story – one of the bottles that Liz kept an eye out for while we were overseas was The Midgie, an annual release by Ardnamurchan that hadn’t made its way to the US yet.

While we have a bottle of this at the house (which we never opened), we got to taste it here tonight for the first time. Long way to go, for a dram that we would’ve gotten at home anyways. Note: I think that this is the first year The Midgie was released to the US.

Who should we see in attendance tonight but our friend Max! On seeing us, he quickly joined our seats over by the big couch. And also alongside us was Mark and Kramer, a father/son duo that we met in January, during a Society tasting.

Note: in the image above, Max brought along his Ardnamurchan Society bottle to share (turns out Elhan, one of our hosts, also did the same thing). Chicago whisky folks continue to blow me away with how generous they are.

A bit towards the end of the night, we were among the last to leave. We dallied a bit, talking to folks… and on returning to our seats, Liz realized they had taken all the glasses and thrown away all the placemats. And along with that, all her notes.

A few minutes later, after digging through a few trash cans, I was able to find them. Smelling a bit stronger of whisky, perhaps, which isn’t a bad thing.

Of note: if you ever get the chance to hear Cral Crafts talk about Ardnamurchan and Adelphi, don’t miss it! He’s a wealth of information, high energy, really funny, and super, super knowledgeable. Had a blast listening to him all night.