Ardmore 18 Year Old 2004 Cask #17 (The Taste of Whisky Pin up Girls)

An 18 year old single cask Ardmore released by The Taste of Whisky in 2022 under the Pin up Girls series, distilled in 2004 and bottled at 55.8% natural strength. The Taste of Whisky is a Polish independent bottler that has built a recognisable label aesthetic across the late 2010s and 2020s, with the Pin up Girls series carrying distinctive illustrated artwork. The 2004 vintage falls in the early steam era at Kennethmont, the fourth year after the 2001 wash still heating conversion. 185 bottles for the Polish market from cask #17.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 2004, the spirit matured in dunnage at Kennethmont through the Fortune Brands and early Beam Global ownership periods. Eighteen years brought the strength to 55.8%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Steam era Ardmore reads cleaner than the coal era profile, with the direct flame Maillard register absent from this period. Refill Bourbon at this maturity gives cis whisky lactone as coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin builds a baked custard layer. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component 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 rather than dominant smoke.