Ardmore 16 Year Old 2000 Cask #CM 231 (The House of MacDuff)

A 16 year old single cask Ardmore from The House of MacDuff's Golden Cask Reserve range, distilled in 2000 and bottled in 2016 at 55.8% natural strength. Cask #CM 231 sits in the same warehouse run as MacDuff's longer aged sister cask #CM 242 (released as a 17 year old in 2017), both drawn from late coal era Ardmore stock. The very small 80 bottle outturn indicates either a small refill cask format or significant evaporative loss across the maturation period. 80 bottles for the European market.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2000, the spirit matured in dunnage at Kennethmont. The wash stills operated on direct coal firing through the distillation, the heating regime that defined every Ardmore vintage between 1898 and early 2001 before the switch to steam. Sixteen years brought the strength to 55.8%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Refill Bourbon at this maturity gives a quiet oak frame. Cis whisky lactone reads as soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light vanilla custard. Coal era furfurals from direct flame distillation carry through as toasted oat and caramelised brown sugar. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sit prominently, with inland peat reading as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at integrated moderate intensity rather than dominant smoke.