Ardbeg 20 Years Old 2000 Cask #10 (First Fill Bourbon)

Cask #10 is part of Ardbeg's curated Distillery Single Cask sequential programme, the same low numbered series that produced cask #86 for Fortnum & Mason's 300th anniversary in 2007 and cask #2 for the Belgian Hotel Béro collaboration. These are not warehouse cask numbers but a curated single cask series with sequential labelling, reserved for individually selected and documented releases.

Filled on 10 January 2000 into first fill American oak bourbon barrel and matured on Islay for twenty years before bottling in June 2020 at 46.7% ABV, non chill filtered with no added colour. 179 bottles drawn at natural strength. The 2000 vintage marks Ardbeg's full transition into the modern Glenmorangie era, with stable production using the refurbished stillhouse and the modern peating specification fully bedded in.

First fill bourbon barrels in the 200 litre size deliver high oak interaction across long maturation. American oak lactones (cis and trans isomers of beta methyl gamma octalactone) reach saturation across twenty years, layering coconut and oiled wood beneath lignin derived vanillin and syringaldehyde sweet baking spice. Modern Ardbeg's 50 to 55 ppm phenol load delivers guaiacol, syringol and 4 methylguaiacol in classic intensity, balanced against the Ardbeg purifier's signature ester pool (ethyl octanoate, isoamyl acetate) reading as tropical fruit (pineapple, lemon, melon) beneath the integrated smoke.