Ardnamurchan 10 Years Old 2014 Whiskyfair Rhein Ruhr

Distilled in 2014 and bottled in 2025 as a 10 Years Old single cask from the distillery, this expression was released exclusively for the Whiskyfair Rhein Ruhr show in Germany at 55.3% ABV without dilution. The cask is an American oak hogshead seasoned with Oloroso sherry, from the distillery's first year.

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 American oak hogshead seasoned with Oloroso and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for ten years.

An American oak hogshead seasoned with Oloroso sherry combines the brighter vanillin and lactone signature of American oak with the rancio chemistry of an Oloroso prior fill. Polyphenol and aldehyde oxidation during the sherry's life imprints dried fruit and nutty character into the wood that crosses into the spirit during maturation. Ten years of dunnage maturation gives the sherry's influence time to integrate into the underlying American oak character, with Maillard reaction products from extended contact driving honey, dried fruit and nutty 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.