Ardnamurchan 5 Years Old 2015 Casks 332 & 333 (Adelphi)

Bottled by Adelphi in 2020 from a vatting of two sister Oloroso sherry casks 332 and 333, this is a 5 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2015 distilled spirit at 59.3% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution as an event exclusive, released in the same year as the inaugural Ardnamurchan single malt.

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 vatting of two Oloroso sherry casks and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for five years.

Oloroso sherry maturation drives the spirit through rancio chemistry, where slow polyphenol and aldehyde oxidation during the sherry's prior cask life generates the dried fruit, leathery and nutty register characteristic of long sherry contact. Maillard reaction products from hemicellulose oak sugars add chocolate and toasted depth. The vatting of two sister casks evens out cask to cask variation while keeping the sherry signature consistent. 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.