Ardmore 24 Year Old 1997 (SMWS 66.218 There’s soot in my copita!)

A 24 year old single cask Ardmore released by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society as cask 66.218, distilled in 1997 and matured in an Oloroso sherry cask. The Society has been one of the most consistent indie sources for aged Ardmore since the 1980s, with the 66 distillery code carrying particular weight for collectors of peated Highland material. The name 'There's soot in my copita!' is a Society code for the marriage of deep sherry character with the inland peat profile that defines Ardmore distillate. 224 bottles for the French market.

The 1997 vintage falls inside the late Allied Distillers period, with direct coal firing of the wash stills still in operation. The spirit was filled at 63.5% into a single Oloroso cask and matured at Kennethmont in dunnage. Twenty four years brought the cask to 54.9%, with the Society's standard policy of no chill filtration and no colouring applied at bottling.

Long Oloroso maturation drives the dominant cask register. Polyphenol oxidation builds rancio depth, with melanoidins from the seasoning reading as walnut, fig and dark dried fruit. Coal era Maillard products amplify caramelisation and dark sugar. The 12 to 14 ppm peat phenols carry into the finish as dry leaf, heather smoke and a peat hearth note that integrates rather than dominates. Eugenol and vanillin from the seasoned oak give clove and warm baking spice across the palate.