Ardmore 25 Year Old 1998 Cask #DL 18249 (Douglas Laing)

A 25 year old single cask Ardmore from Douglas Laing's XOP (Xtra Old Particular) range, distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2023 at 49.6% natural strength. XOP sits above the standard Old Particular line in the Douglas Laing range, reserved for casks reaching the longer aged statements that the warehouse holdings allow. The 1998 vintage falls inside the late Allied Distillers period that ran through to the 2005 Pernod Ricard and Fortune Brands carve up. 235 bottles for Europe from cask #DL 18249.

Filled at 63.5% into a single ex Bourbon refill American oak cask in 1998, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the wash stills' direct coal heating regime. Twenty five years brought the strength to 49.6%, 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 through the period.

Long refill Bourbon maturation develops a quiet oxidative complexity. Cis whisky lactone gives soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin shows as baked custard, syringaldehyde adds clove. Coal era furfurals from direct flame distillation read as toasted oat and brown sugar at this maturity. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sit at the centre, with inland peat reading as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at integrated moderate intensity.