Ardmore 14 Year Old 2000 Liquid Library (The Whisky Agency)

A 14 year old single cask Ardmore released by The Whisky Agency in 2014 under the Liquid Library series, distilled in 2000 and bottled at 49.8% natural strength. Liquid Library was one of Carsten Ehrlich's longer running Whisky Agency lines, with photographic black and white label design that became immediately recognisable in the late 2000s and 2010s. The 2000 vintage falls in the final year of direct coal firing of the wash stills at Kennethmont. 289 bottles for the European market.

Distilled in 2000 from peated Aberdeenshire malt at the 12 to 14 ppm phenol level, the spirit was filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask and matured in dunnage at Kennethmont. The wash stills operated on direct coal firing throughout the distillation, the heating regime that defined every Ardmore vintage between 1898 and early 2001. Fourteen years brought the strength to 49.8%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Refill Bourbon at this maturity gives a quiet oak frame around distillery character. Cis whisky lactone reads as soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light vanilla custard. Coal era furfurals from direct flame distillation carry through as toasted oat and brown sugar. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sit prominently, with inland peat reading as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at integrated moderate intensity.