Ardmore 14 Year Old Cask #703864 (Spiritfilled)

A 14 year old single cask Ardmore released by Spiritfilled under the Mythical Beasts series, bottled at 56.8% natural strength. Spiritfilled is a small independent bottler with focus on natural strength single cask single malt releases tied to themed series, with Mythical Beasts running across multiple distillery releases. The high cask #703864 sits in the same numbering range as 2009 Beam era distillery fill casks seen across multiple European bottlers, placing distillation likely in 2009 with bottling around 2023. 225 bottles for the European market.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime. Fourteen years brought the strength to 56.8%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling. The peat load at 12 to 14 ppm phenol and the 54 to 55 hour fermentation on Mauri and Kerry yeast both stayed at standard distillery spec.

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, with syringaldehyde adding a faint clove edge. Steam era distillate sits prominently 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 rather than dominant smoke. Honeyed barley closes the finish.