Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old 2016 Cask Series 022 (North Star)

Bottled by North Star Spirits in 2023 as Cask Series 022, this is a 6 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2016 distilled spirit at 58.5% ABV. The expression was matured in Oloroso sherry and bottled for global distribution. The numbered Cask Series is North Star's flagship single cask line, with each release identified by a sequential release number that lets buyers trace the bottler's curatorial path.

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. Cask strength bottling at 58.5% preserves the higher esters from long fermentation alongside the developed Oloroso 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.