Ardnamurchan AD/04.24:02 2016 & 2017

Bottled in April 2024 as the second batch of that month, AD/04.24:02 is a small batch core release at 46.8% ABV drawing on 2016 and 2017 vintage stock. The distillery filled 6,732 bottles for the European market, a notably smaller run than the regular Core Batch volumes.

Both vintages were distilled from Concerto barley, fermented 72 to 120 hours in stainless steel on a single strain distiller's yeast and double distilled through copper pot stills with reflux boil balls to a new make of 74 to 76% ABV. The cask programme combines ex Bourbon American oak and Oloroso sherry European oak. The spirit was filled at 63.5% and matured on site in dunnage warehousing on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, where cool humid coastal conditions slow extraction relative to inland rack warehouses.

The ex Bourbon fraction contributes vanillin and oak lactones to the lighter character that Ardnamurchan's higher new make strength preserves. The Oloroso component adds the dried fruit and oxidative depth associated with rancio development, where slow oxidation of polyphenols and aldehydes during years of cask interaction generates flavour compounds absent in unsherried whisky. Across both vintages the release carries the peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) from the distillery's split production, integrated rather than foregrounded after seven to eight years of dunnage maturation.