Ardmore 32 Year Old 1988 (Daily Dram)

A 32 year old Ardmore released by Daily Dram in 2021 as part of the fifteenth anniversary range for Belgian importer The Nectar. The 1988 distillate falls inside the Allied Distillers period that followed the 1976 sale by William Teacher & Sons, and represents one of very few single cask outings from the Ardmore inventory of that decade. Bottled at 47.2% for the event market, where small format anniversary releases tend to anchor.

The spirit was distilled from peated Aberdeenshire malt under direct coal firing of the wash stills, the heating method that defined every Ardmore distillation between 1898 and 2001. After thirty two years in refill ex Bourbon American oak, the bottling strength settled in the high 40s with no chill filtration applied. The fill was made at 63.5% in the standard Ardmore manner, with maturation across Kennethmont dunnage.

Long refill Bourbon maturation pushes the cask influence into background mode and lets distillery character lead. Coal era Maillard products carry through as caramelised cereal, toasted pastry and baked sugar, with oak lactone showing as soft coconut rather than green wood. The peat phenols, at 12 to 14 ppm into a long aged spirit, have rounded into smoked tea, dry leaf and a quiet hearth note. Honeyed orchard fruit and ester driven apple sit at the centre, with secondary lactic notes from the long 54 to 55 hour fermentation reading as a malted dairy depth in the finish.