Ardnamurchan 5 Years Old TWEx April Fool

Bottled by The Whisky Exchange in 2022 as a 5 Years Old Ardnamurchan from ex Bourbon maturation at 53.2% ABV, this expression carries the playful TWEx April Fool name as part of the retailer's recurring April release tradition. The release was bottled for Europe under The Whisky Exchange's exclusive imprint.

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 ex Bourbon American oak cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for five years.

Ex Bourbon American oak focuses cask contribution on vanillin and the cis isomer of whisky lactone from the toasted and charred staves, with hemicellulose oak sugars driving honey and vanilla through Maillard chemistry. The cleaner American oak palette suits Ardnamurchan's lighter new make and lets fermentation derived esters carry through without sherry darkness to mask them. The shorter five year maturation lets the underlying distillate character carry forward, with fermentation derived esters and the higher new make strength preserving lighter volatile compounds. 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.