Ardmore 20 Year Old 1998 (Mancarella)

A 20 year old single cask Ardmore released by Italian independent Mancarella in 2018, distilled in 1998 and bottled at 51.9% natural strength. Mancarella has operated as a small format bottler focused on tightly selected single casks, sourced through established broker networks. The 1998 vintage falls inside the late Allied Distillers period that ran from the 1976 William Teacher sale through to the 2005 Pernod Ricard and Fortune Brands carve up of Allied Domecq. Bottled for the German market.

Distilled in 1998 from peated Aberdeenshire malt at the 12 to 14 ppm phenol level, the spirit was filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask and matured in dunnage at Kennethmont. The wash stills operated on direct coal firing throughout the distillation, the heating regime that defined every Ardmore vintage between 1898 and early 2001. Twenty years brought the strength to 51.9%, with no chill filtration applied.

Refill Bourbon at this maturity gives a quiet oak frame around distillery character. Cis whisky lactone reads as soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light custard. Coal era furfurals from direct flame distillation carry through as toasted oat and brown sugar. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sit at the centre, with inland peat reading as heather smoke, dry leaf and an earthy phenolic note at integrated intensity.