Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old 2016 AD/02:16 CK.66

Distilled in February 2016 as part of batch AD/02:16 and bottled in 2022 from single Oloroso sherry cask CK.66, this is a 6 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 57.8% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution for the Polish market as a single cask selection from the distillery's third 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 Oloroso sherry cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for six 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. Six years of dunnage maturation at Glenbeg's cool humid coastal conditions develops the rancio chemistry while preserving the brighter fermentation derived character beneath the sherry foreground. 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.