Ardmore 18 Year Old 2002 Cask #285 (Adelphi)

An 18 year old single cask Ardmore released by Adelphi Selection in 2020, distilled in 2002 and bottled at 55.8% natural strength. Cask #285 sits in the same warehouse fill series as Adelphi's own #317 (released as a 17 year old in 2019), both drawn from the 2002 Ardmore stock holding at Charlestown of Aberlour. The vintage falls in the early steam era at Kennethmont, the first full year after the 2001 conversion of the wash stills from direct coal firing. 228 bottles for the Netherlands.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2002, the spirit matured in dunnage at Kennethmont through the Allied Distillers, Fortune Brands and early Beam Global ownership periods. Eighteen years brought the strength to 55.8%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling. The peat load at 12 to 14 ppm phenol and the 54 to 55 hour fermentation on Mauri and Kerry yeast both stayed at standard distillery spec.

Steam era Ardmore reads cleaner than the coal era profile, with the direct flame Maillard register absent. Refill Bourbon at this age gives cis whisky lactone as coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin builds a baked custard register. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sit prominently at the centre, with inland peat reading as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at integrated moderate intensity rather than dominant smoke.