Ardnamurchan 5 Years Old 2019 Chairman’s Stock (Cadenhead’s)

Bottled by William Cadenhead in 2025 under the Chairman's Stock imprint, this is a 5 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2019 distilled spirit at 60.1% ABV. The expression was matured in Oloroso sherry and bottled without dilution for the Netherlands market. Cadenhead's, founded in 1842, is Scotland's oldest independent bottler and the Chairman's Stock series carries casks selected personally by the company's chairman.

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. At five years the cask interaction is in its assertive phase, with the sherry foreground prominent and the spirit character carrying clearly alongside. 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.