Ardmore 10 Year Old 2010 Cask #800520 (van Wees)

A 10 year old single cask Ardmore released by van Wees in 2021 under The Ultimate Cask Strength range, distilled in 2010 and bottled at 57.5% natural strength. Van Wees is a Dutch family operation based in Amersfoort, founded in 1923 and now one of the Netherlands' oldest continuously running spirits houses. The Ultimate range carries their long established single cask single malt programme, with the Cask Strength variant covering their natural strength releases. 193 bottles for the Belgian market from cask #800520. The 2010 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2010, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime. Ten years brought the strength to 57.5%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Refill Bourbon at this maturity gives a clean oak frame around distillery character. Cis whisky lactone reads as soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light custard, with syringaldehyde adding a faint clove edge. Steam era distillate sits prominently at the centre with apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component. The 12 to 14 ppm peat phenols read as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at moderate integrated intensity. Honeyed barley closes a warm long finish at full strength.