Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old 2015 Cask 144 (Adelphi)

Bottled by Adelphi in 2021 from single ex Bourbon cask 144, this is a 6 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2015 distilled spirit at 59.1% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution as an event exclusive under the Adelphi selectors imprint, drawing from the distillery's second year of production.

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 ex Bourbon American oak cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for six years.

Ex Bourbon American oak focuses cask contribution on vanillin and the cis isomer of whisky lactone from the toasted and charred staves, with hemicellulose oak sugars driving honey and vanilla through Maillard chemistry. The cleaner American oak palette suits Ardnamurchan's lighter new make and lets fermentation derived esters carry through without sherry darkness to mask them. Six years in ex Bourbon develops vanillin and oak lactones into the secondary phase, with Maillard reaction products building honey and toasted register alongside the preserved fermentation esters. 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.