Ardmore 17 Year Old 2008 Cask #703398 (The Caskhound Peatwave)

A 17 year old single cask Ardmore released by The Caskhound in 2025 under the Peatwave series, distilled in 2008 and bottled at 53.8% natural strength. The Caskhound operates as a relatively new indie outfit with a programme focused on peated single casks, with Peatwave serving as the thematic banner for releases like this Ardmore. The 2008 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont, with the 2014 Legacy launch and 2024 Suntory Global Spirits restructure both happening during this cask's maturation. 239 bottles for the German market from cask #703398.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2008, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime. Seventeen years brought the strength to 53.8% naturally, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Refill Bourbon at this maturity gives a clean oak frame. Cis whisky lactone reads as soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as baked custard, syringaldehyde adds clove. Steam era distillate reads cleaner than coal era stock, with apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sitting 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.