Ardmore 14 Year Old 2009 Cask #709273 (The Caskhound)

A 14 year old single cask Ardmore released by The Caskhound in 2024 as a Shared Cask Exclusive Bottling, distilled in 2009 and bottled at 53.4% natural strength with a Tawny Port profile. The Caskhound operates from Germany with focus on natural strength single cask single malt releases drawn from European cask broker stock. Cask #709273 sits in the 2009 #709xxx cluster of Beam era distillery fill casks that appears across multiple European bottler releases through the early 2020s. 260 bottles in 500ml format for the German market. The 2009 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont with steam heating on the wash stills since 2001.

Filled at 63.5% in 2009, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime before transfer into a Tawny Port seasoned cask for the latter stages. Fourteen years brought the strength to 53.4%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Tawny Port finishing differs from Ruby Port in delivering oxidative wood character on top of wine derived compounds. Brown sugar, dried fig and walnut from the long aged Port sit alongside residual sweet wine sugars and anthocyanin pigments. Steam era distillate underneath shows 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 moderate integrated intensity. A warm sweet smoky finish closes the profile.