Ardnamurchan AD/10.22:04 5 Years Old

Bottled in October 2022 as the fourth batch of that month, AD/10.22:04 is a 5 Years Old Ardnamurchan core release at 46.8% ABV from ex Bourbon and Oloroso casks. The distillery filled 23,770 bottles for the European market.

The release draws on both peated and unpeated production runs from the distillery's split regime. Concerto barley is milled into a copper topped semi lauter mash tun, fermented 72 to 120 hours in seven stainless steel washbacks on a single strain distiller's yeast and double distilled through two wash and two spirit stills with reflux boil balls, reaching a new make of 74 to 76% ABV. Spirit was filled at 63.5% and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing on the peninsula, with coastal humidity slowing extraction.

Ex Bourbon American oak supplies vanillin and oak lactones at the base of the profile, framing the fresh fruit and citric character that the higher new make strength preserves into maturation. The Oloroso fraction drives the chocolate and cooked fruit notes through rancio chemistry, where slow oxidation of polyphenols and aldehydes generates Maillard reaction products absent in unsherried casks. Five years of dunnage maturation has bedded the peated portion's phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) into a present but supporting smoke beneath malt extract and dried fruit.