Ardnamurchan 5 Years Old 2015 AD/07:15 CK.335

Distilled in July 2015 as part of batch AD/07:15 and bottled in 2020 from single Oloroso sherry cask CK.335, this is a 5 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 58.5% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution for the European market, released in the same year as the inaugural Ardnamurchan single malt.

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 Oloroso sherry cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for five years.

Oloroso sherry maturation drives the spirit through rancio chemistry, where slow polyphenol and aldehyde oxidation during the sherry's prior cask life generates the dried fruit, leathery and nutty register characteristic of long sherry contact. Maillard reaction products from hemicellulose oak sugars add chocolate and toasted depth. The shorter five year maturation lets the underlying distillate character read alongside the developing sherry contribution, with fermentation derived esters and the higher new make strength preserving lighter volatile compounds. 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.