Ardmore 9 Year Old 2010 Cask #1924046 (Duncan Taylor)

A 9 year old single cask Ardmore released by Duncan Taylor in 2019 under The Octave range, distilled in 2010 and bottled at 54.1% natural strength after an Oloroso octave cask finish. Duncan Taylor is the long established Huntly based operation founded in 1938. The Octave range is their proprietary small cask finishing programme using octave format casks of roughly 70 litres capacity, dramatically reducing volume against a standard 200 litre hogshead and driving accelerated wood interaction through the much higher surface area to volume ratio. The very tight 33 bottle outturn reflects the small octave volume. Bottled for the event market from cask #1924046. The 2010 vintage falls in the early Beam Global ownership period at Kennethmont.

Filled at 63.5% into ex Bourbon refill American oak in 2010, the spirit matured at Kennethmont under the post 2001 steam heating regime before transfer into an Oloroso octave for the finishing stage. Nine years total brought the strength to 54.1%, with no chill filtration applied at bottling.

The octave format drives intense wood interaction at high surface to volume ratio. Oloroso furfural reads concentrated as walnut and toasted hazelnut, with quercetin tannins delivering pronounced dry grip. Steam era distillate underneath shows apple and pear esters from the Kerry yeast component, and the 12 to 14 ppm peat phenols read as heather smoke, dry leaf and earthy phenolic at integrated intensity through a concentrated savoury finish.