Ardnamurchan 10 Years Old 2014 Cask 338 (Adelphi)

Bottled by Adelphi in 2025 from single Oloroso sherry cask 338, this is a 10 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2014 distilled spirit at 57.1% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution for Europe under Adelphi, drawing from the distillery's first year of production. Adelphi is the original owner of the distillery, making these bottlings effectively distillery selected even where labelled with the bottler.

Production followed Ardnamurchan's standard regime. Concerto barley was milled into a copper topped semi lauter mash tun, fermented 72 to 120 hours on a single strain distiller's yeast, then double distilled through copper pot stills with reflux boil balls to a new make of 74 to 76% ABV. Spirit was filled at 63.5% into a single Oloroso sherry cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for ten years.

Oloroso sherry maturation drives the spirit through rancio chemistry generating the dried fruit, leathery and nutty register characteristic of long sherry contact. Maillard reaction products from hemicellulose oak sugars add chocolate and toasted depth. A decade develops the rancio chemistry through full expression, with extended polyphenol oxidation and oak sugar Maillard products driving the deeper nutty and old wood register. Peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) from the peated portion of the split production integrate as smoke backbone.