Ardmore 16 Year Old 2009 Cask #1 (Signatory Vintage)

A 16 year old single cask Ardmore released by Signatory Vintage in 2026 under the Cask Strength Collection, distilled in 2009 and bottled at 56.7% natural strength. Signatory Vintage is run by the Symington family from Edradour Distillery in Pitlochry, with one of the longest standing programmes in independent bottling. The Cask Strength Collection sits as their core natural strength single cask line. 341 bottles for the European market from cask #1, the simple cask numbering reflecting Signatory's own internal sequence rather than the distillery fill number. The 2009 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont, with the wash stills running under steam heating since 2001.

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. Sixteen years brought the strength to 56.7%, with no chill filtration and no colouring 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 baked custard. 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 a long warm finish.