Ardmore 12 Year Old 2009 Cask #708026 (Elixir Distillers)

A 12 year old single cask Ardmore released by Elixir Distillers in 2022, distilled in 2009 and bottled at 54.1% natural strength. Elixir Distillers is the bottling operation behind The Whisky Exchange retail business, with releases drawn from extensive single cask inventory built up over decades. Cask #708026 sits in the same Beam era distillery fill numbering parcel as the bottler's #708017 Belgian release from the same 2022 selection round, both bottled at the same strength which suggests parallel selection from a narrow cluster of casks. 245 bottles for the European market. The 2009 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont.

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. Twelve years brought the strength to 54.1%, 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. Steam era distillate sits at the centre with apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component. The 12 to 14 ppm peat phenols read as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at moderate integrated intensity, with a faintly medicinal rubbery edge from the inland peat phenolic register. Vanilla and dry leaf close the finish.