Ardmore 22 Year Old 1997 (Daily Dram)

A 22 year old Ardmore released by Daily Dram in 2020 under the Nectar of the Daily Drams series, the long running event and trade bottling programme operated by Belgian importer The Nectar. The 1997 vintage sits inside the late Allied Distillers period that ran from the 1976 William Teacher & Sons sale through to the 2005 Pernod Ricard and Fortune Brands carve up of Allied Domecq. Single malt Ardmore from this period reached the market almost entirely through independent bottlers with long standing warehouse contracts.

Distilled in 1997 from peated Aberdeenshire malt at the standard 12 to 14 ppm phenol level, the spirit was filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask and matured in dunnage at Kennethmont. The wash stills operated on direct coal firing through the distillation, with the 54 to 55 hour fermentation on Mauri and Kerry yeast giving the spirit its standard ester profile. Twenty two years brought the strength to 50.6%, with no chill filtration applied.

Refill Bourbon at this age frames rather than dominates distillery character. Cis whisky lactone gives soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as light custard. Coal era furfurals from direct flame distillation read as toasted oat and caramelised brown sugar. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sit at the centre, with inland peat phenols reading as heather smoke, dry leaf and an earthy phenolic hum at integrated moderate intensity rather than dominant smoke.