Ardnamurchan 5 Years Old 2015 SMWS 149.1 Smoky Salty and Malty

Bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society as cask 149.1 with the SMWS tasting title Smoky Salty and Malty, this is a 5 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2015 distilled spirit at 61.5% ABV. The expression marks the first SMWS bottling from Ardnamurchan, the distillery to which the Society assigned code 149. Matured in Oloroso sherry and bottled without dilution for the European market.

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 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 Society title flags the salt, smoke and cereal register of the cask, pointing to peated production and a salty coastal influence from Glenbeg's exposed peninsula location. Peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) carry through at full intensity, framing the cask interaction with structural smoke.