Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old 2015 (Phil & Simon Thompson)

Bottled by Phil & Simon Thompson in 2022 from 2015 distilled spirit, this is a 6 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 58.4% ABV from ex Bourbon maturation. Bottled without dilution for Europe by the Thompson brothers of Dornoch Distillery in Sutherland.

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. Six years of cask interaction develops vanillin and oak lactones through the primary extract phase while preserving fermentation derived esters and the higher new make character. 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.