Ardmore 27 Year Old 1997 Wave farewell to 2025 (The Whisky Agency)

A 27 year old single cask Ardmore released by The Whisky Agency in 2025 as part of the Wave farewell to 2025 series, distilled in 1997 and bottled at 50.7% natural strength. The Wave series is the bottler's recurring end of year farewell collection, drawing from particularly long aged stock in Carsten Ehrlich's Hamburg warehouse holding. The 1997 vintage falls inside the late Allied Distillers period and represents the deep coal era inventory that the Agency has been quietly working through across multiple releases. 139 bottles for the European market.

Distilled in 1997 from peated Aberdeenshire malt at the 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 throughout the distillation. Twenty seven years brought the cask to 50.7%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

Refill Bourbon at this maturity lets distillery character lead. Cis whisky lactone gives soft coconut and pine, vanillin from oak lignin builds a baked custard register. Coal era furfurals from direct flame distillation read as toasted oat and brown sugar at this age. Apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component sit prominently, with inland peat showing as heather smoke, dry leaf and an earthy phenolic hum at integrated moderate intensity.