Ardmore 23 Year Old 1997 Cask #900663 (Gordon & MacPhail)

A 23 year old single cask Ardmore released by Gordon & MacPhail in 2021 under the Connoisseurs Choice Cask Strength banner, distilled in 1997 and bottled at 55.9%. The vintage sits inside the late Allied Distillers period that fed nearly all production into Teacher's Highland Cream, ending with the 2005 Pernod Ricard and Fortune Brands divestment of Allied Domecq. G&M's long warehouse contract held the dominant single malt outturn position for Ardmore through these years. 242 bottles for the Netherlands.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 1997, the spirit matured in dunnage at Kennethmont under the wash stills' direct coal heating regime. Twenty three years brought the strength to 55.9% naturally, with no chill filtration applied. The peat load at 12 to 14 ppm phenol and the 54 to 55 hour fermentation on Mauri and Kerry yeast both ran at standard distillery spec through the period.

Refill Bourbon at this age frames distillery character rather than overwhelming it. Cis whisky lactone gives soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light custard, syringaldehyde adds clove. Coal era furfurals 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 moderate intensity. A soft creamy lactic edge closes the finish.