Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old 2015 AD/05:15 CK.183

Distilled in May 2015 as part of batch AD/05:15 and bottled in 2021 from single American oak cask CK.183, this is a 6 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 58.5% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution for the UK market as a single cask selection from the distillery's second year of production.

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 American oak cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for six years.

American oak as a single cask type focuses cask interaction on vanillin and oak lactones from the toasted and charred staves, with toasted oak sugars driving honey and caramel through Maillard chemistry. The cleaner American oak palette suits Ardnamurchan's lighter new make character. Six years of cask interaction has the wood profile in its primary extract phase, with vanillin and oak lactones forward while slower Maillard chemistry still develops. 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.