Ardmore 8 Year Old 2013 (The Whisky Mercenary)

An 8 year old Ardmore released by The Whisky Mercenary in 2022, distilled in 2013 and bottled at 54.1% natural strength. The Whisky Mercenary is a small Belgium based independent bottler with focus on natural strength single cask and small batch single malt releases drawn from European cask broker channels. 95 bottles for the Belgian market. The 2013 vintage falls in the early years of Suntory Holdings ownership of Ardmore via Beam Suntory, formed by the 2014 acquisition of Beam Inc by Suntory Holdings.

Filled at 63.5% into ex Bourbon refill American oak in 2013, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime. Eight years brought the strength to 54.1%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling. The peat load at 12 to 14 ppm phenol and the 54 to 55 hour fermentation on Mauri and Kerry yeast both stayed at standard distillery spec.

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 the finish.