Ardbeg 19 Years Old 1993 (Cadenhead’s)

An 1993 Ardbeg from the heart of Cadenhead's long running 1993 programme, bottled at 19 years in July 2013. Cadenhead's single cask Ardbegs have historically been priced significantly below the Glenmorangie owned Distillery's own single cask releases, with this 19 year old released at the time for around 80 GBP against parallel Distillery exclusives in the high hundreds. The bottler's 1842 Aberdeen heritage and Springbank owned Campbeltown operations underpin the value oriented strategy.

Filled into refill bourbon hogshead in 1993 during Allied Distillers's intermittent reopening and matured for nineteen years before bottling in July 2013 at 57.9% ABV, non chill filtered with no added colour, 312 bottles drawn at natural strength. The 250 litre refill hogshead format gives gentle oak extraction relative to first fill.

Nineteen years of refill bourbon maturation builds developed mid age expression. Cis and trans oak lactones (coconut, oiled wood) build at expressive concentration, hemicellulose breakdown furans deliver caramel and toasted almond, and lignin vanillin and syringaldehyde layer vanilla and baking spice. The 1993 Allied era peat phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol, p cresol) carry strong intensity with emerging oxidative shift toward leather and tarred rope. The Ardbeg purifier ester signature delivers concentrated pineapple, lemon and tropical fruit beneath the integrated phenolic core.