Ardmore 17 Year Old 2002 Cask #317 (Adelphi)

A 17 year old single cask Ardmore released by Adelphi Selection in 2019, distilled in 2002 and bottled at 58.2% natural strength. Adelphi, operated from Charlestown of Aberlour, has built one of the longest standing indie Ardmore programmes among contemporary bottlers, with consistent single cask output dating back to the late 1990s. The 2002 vintage falls in the early steam era at Kennethmont, the first full year after the wash stills converted from direct coal firing in early 2001. 275 bottles for the Netherlands market.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2002, the spirit matured in dunnage at Kennethmont through the Allied Distillers, Fortune Brands and early Beam Global ownership periods. Seventeen years brought the strength to 58.2%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Steam era Ardmore reads slightly cleaner than the coal era profile, with the direct flame Maillard products that defined pre 2001 vintages absent from this period. Refill Bourbon at this age gives cis whisky lactone as coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin as baked custard. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast fermentation sit prominently at the centre, with the 12 to 14 ppm peat phenols reading as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at moderate integrated intensity. A soft creamy lactic edge closes the finish.