Ardmore 10 Year Old 2009 Cask #4032 (The Caskhound)

A 10 year old single cask Ardmore released by The Caskhound in 2020, distilled in 2009 and bottled at 58.8% natural strength. The Caskhound is a German independent bottler with a tightly curated programme of single cask and small batch single malt releases drawn from European cask broker stock. Cask #4032 sits alongside the bottler's sequential cask #4033 from the same parcel, suggesting consecutive casks bought together and held back for staged release across the early 2020s. 294 bottles in 500ml format for the German market. The 2009 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont with steam heating on the wash stills since 2001.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2009, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime. Ten years brought the strength to 58.8%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Refill Bourbon at this strength delivers distillery character with intensity. Cis whisky lactone reads as coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light custard. Steam era distillate sits prominently at the centre with apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component and a citric fresh fruit register. The 12 to 14 ppm peat phenols read as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at moderate integrated intensity. New wood and malt extract close a warm long finish at full strength.