Ardmore 10 Year Old 2010 Cask #1926683 (Duncan Taylor)

A 10 year old single cask Ardmore released by Duncan Taylor in 2020 under The Octave Peated range, distilled in 2010 and bottled at 53.2% natural strength. Duncan Taylor's Octave range uses octave format casks of roughly 70 litres capacity for small cask finishing, with the Peated variant of The Octave specifically pulling stock from peated distilleries. Ardmore at 12 to 14 ppm phenol sits at the lighter peated end of the Scotch malt spectrum but still qualifies. 89 bottles for the German market from cask #1926683. The 2010 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont with steam heating on the wash stills since 2001.

Filled at 63.5% into ex Bourbon refill American oak in 2010, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime before transfer into an ex Bourbon octave for the latter stages. Ten years brought the strength to 53.2%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

The octave format drives intense wood interaction at high surface to volume ratio. Cis whisky lactone reads concentrated as coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as baked custard from the octave delivery. Steam era distillate sits at the centre with apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component, with the 12 to 14 ppm peat phenols reading as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at integrated intensity. Honeyed barley closes the finish.