Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old 2015 Cask 706 (Caskshare)

Bottled by Caskshare in 2021 from single ex Bourbon cask 706, this is a 6 Years Old peated Ardnamurchan from 2015 distilled spirit at 58% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution for the UK market through the Caskshare platform, which sells fractional cask shares to private buyers ahead of bottling.

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 six 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 cask reference includes a P designation, indicating peated production. 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.