Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old 2016 Cask 1299 (Single Cask Nation)

Bottled by the Jewish Whisky Company in 2023 under the Single Cask Nation imprint from single ex Bourbon cask 1299, this is a 6 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2016 distilled spirit at 58.9% ABV. Bottled without dilution for Germany. The Jewish Whisky Company is a US based independent bottler releasing Single Cask Nation.

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 dunnage maturation develops vanillin and oak lactones into the established extract phase, with cask strength bottling preserving the higher fermentation esters. 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.