Ardnamurchan AD/ Cask Strength Release 2025

Released in 2025 as part of the Ardnamurchan Cask Strength Release programme, this batch is bottled at 57.7% ABV without dilution from a vatting of ex Bourbon and Oloroso casks. The distillery filled 12,911 bottles for the European market.

Production at Ardnamurchan starts with Concerto barley 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 to a new make of 74 to 76% ABV. The release combines both peated and unpeated runs from the distillery's split regime. Spirit was filled at 63.5% and matured on site in dunnage warehousing at Glenbeg.

Bottling at full cask strength preserves the volatile compounds normally lost through dilution, including the higher esters carried from long fermentation. Ex Bourbon American oak supplies vanillin and oak lactones at the structural base, framing the honey and malt extract notes through Maillard interaction with toasted oak sugars. The Oloroso fraction adds chocolate and leathery character through rancio chemistry, with slow polyphenol oxidation generating the nutty and old wood register characteristic of long sherry contact. Peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) integrate into the broader profile rather than dominating.