Ardmore 10 Year Old 2009 Cask #CM 259 (The House of MacDuff)

A 10 year old single cask Ardmore released by The House of MacDuff in 2020 under The Golden Cask range, distilled in 2009 and bottled at 56% natural strength. The House of MacDuff operates from Glasgow with The Golden Cask as their flagship single cask single malt line, running since the early 2000s with consistent output across multiple distilleries. The 2009 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont with steam heating on the wash stills since 2001. 245 bottles for the Dutch market from cask #CM 259.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2009, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime. Ten years brought the strength to 56%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Refill Bourbon at this maturity gives a clean oak frame around distillery character. Cis whisky lactone reads as soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light custard, with syringaldehyde adding a faint clove edge. Steam era distillate reads cleaner than coal era stock, with apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sitting prominently at the centre. The 12 to 14 ppm peat phenols read as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at moderate integrated intensity rather than dominant smoke. Honeyed barley closes the finish.