Ardnamurchan 7 Years Old 2014 AD/11:14 CK.390

Distilled in November 2014 as part of batch AD/11:14 and bottled in 2021 from single Pedro Ximenez sherry cask CK.390, this is a 7 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 58.2% ABV. The expression was released as a distillery exclusive single cask for the Netherlands market.

Production followed Ardnamurchan's standard regime. Concerto barley was 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 copper pot stills with reflux boil balls to a new make of 74 to 76% ABV. Spirit was filled at 63.5% into a single Pedro Ximenez sherry cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for seven years.

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, with rancio chemistry adding nutty and old wood register. Seven years of cask interaction allows the PX's concentrated wine remnants to fully integrate into the spirit, with rancio chemistry and Maillard products from oak sugars building extended chocolate and dried fruit depth. Peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) from the peated portion of the split production integrate as smoke backbone.