Ardnamurchan 2019 AD/ Sherry Cask Release 7 Years Old

Released in 2026 from 2019 distilled spirit, this Sherry Cask Release is a 7 Years Old expression from Ardnamurchan bottled at 56.9% ABV from Pedro Ximenez sherry casks. The distillery filled this batch for the German market, continuing the Sherry Cask Release programme that the Glenbeg distillery has built around its heavier sherry component.

Production at Ardnamurchan starts with Concerto barley milled into a copper topped semi lauter mash tun, fermented 72 to 120 hours on a single strain distiller's yeast, then double distilled through two wash and two spirit stills with reflux boil balls to a new make of 74 to 76% ABV. The release draws on both peated and unpeated runs from the split regime. Spirit was filled at 63.5% and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing.

Pedro Ximenez is the most concentrated sherry style for cask finishing, drawn from grapes sun dried to raisin stage before pressing. Residual PX sugars and high viscosity wine remnants soaked into the wood drive heavy raisin, fig and dark dried fruit notes through sotolon and related lactones. Rancio chemistry adds nutty and old wood register from polyphenol oxidation. At cask strength higher esters from long fermentation are preserved, with peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) from the peated portion integrating into the sherry darkness as backbone.