Ardmore 11 Year Old 2011 Cask #44 1 (Berry Bros & Rudd)

An 11 year old single cask Ardmore released by Berry Bros & Rudd in 2023, distilled in 2011 and bottled at 54.1% natural strength. Berry Bros & Rudd's single cask programme has run from their Number Three St James's Street base in London since the 1990s, with Ardmore appearing across multiple releases over the decades. The simple #44 1 cask numbering reflects the bottler's own internal sequence rather than the distillery fill number. 339 bottles for the Luxembourg market. The 2011 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont with steam heating on the wash stills since 2001, before the 2014 sale of Beam Inc to Suntory Holdings.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2011, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime. Eleven years brought the strength to 54.1%, 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 the finish.