Ardmore 14 Year Old 2006 Cask #800960 (Berry Bros & Rudd)

A 14 year old single cask Ardmore released by Berry Bros & Rudd in 2021, distilled in 2006 and bottled at 60.7% natural strength. Berry Bros & Rudd's single cask programme has run from their Number Three St James's Street base in London since the 1990s, with Ardmore appearing across multiple releases over the decades. The 60.7% outturn strength after fourteen years indicates a tightly sealed cask with low evaporative loss. The 2006 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period. 135 bottles for the Italian market from cask #800960.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2006, the spirit matured in dunnage at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime. Fourteen years brought the cask only marginally below fill strength, holding at 60.7% with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Refill Bourbon at high outturn strength reads with a tight oak frame. Cis whisky lactone gives soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light custard. Steam era distillate lacks the coal era Maillard register, presenting cleaner apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component 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.