Ardnamurchan 2018 AD/ Sherry Cask Release 5 Years Old

Released in 2023 from 2018 distilled spirit, this Sherry Cask Release is a 5 Years Old expression from Ardnamurchan bottled at 50% ABV from a dual sherry vatting of Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez. The release sits within the distillery's ongoing Sherry Cask Release programme for the European market.

Both peated and unpeated production runs from the distillery's split regime feed this vatting. Concerto barley is milled into a copper topped semi lauter mash tun, fermented 72 to 120 hours in seven stainless steel washbacks on a single strain distiller's yeast, then double distilled through wash and spirit stills with reflux boil balls to a new make of 74 to 76% ABV. Spirit was filled at 63.5% and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing.

Dual sherry maturation contrasts two registers of rancio chemistry. The Oloroso fraction drives oxidative dried fruit and leathery notes through slow polyphenol oxidation during extended oxygen exposure in the sherry's prior cask life. The Pedro Ximenez component adds heavier raisin, fig and concentrated dried fruit through residual PX sugars and sotolon derived compounds carried in the wood. At five years the cask interaction is still in its assertive phase, with the sherry foreground prominent. Peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) from the peated portion of split production sit as smoke backbone within the sherry darkness.