Ardmore 21 Year Old 1998 Cask #750802 (A.D. Rattray)

A 21 year old single cask Ardmore released by A.D. Rattray in 2019 as an Individual Cask Release, distilled in 1998 and bottled at 51.7%. Cask #750802 sits in the same 750xxx fill series as the Elixir 1998 Ardmore releases (#750764, #750768, #750789), all five casks drawn from the same warehouse run of late Allied era distillate. The vintage falls inside the period that fed nearly all Ardmore production into Teacher's Highland Cream, with single malt outturn restricted to established independents. 248 bottles for Europe.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 1998, the spirit matured in dunnage at Kennethmont under the wash stills' direct coal heating regime. Twenty one years brought the strength to 51.7% naturally, with no chill filtration applied at bottling. The peat load at 12 to 14 ppm phenol and the 54 to 55 hour fermentation both stayed at standard distillery spec.

Refill Bourbon at this age frames distillery character without overwhelming it. Cis whisky lactone gives soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light custard, syringaldehyde adds clove. Coal era furfurals from direct flame distillation carry through as toasted oat and brown sugar. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sit at the centre, with inland peat reading as heather smoke and earthy phenolic at integrated moderate intensity.