Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old 2016 Obscurities & Curiosities (North Star)

Bottled by North Star Spirits in 2023 under the Obscurities & Curiosities imprint, this is a 6 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2016 distilled spirit at 55.4% ABV. The expression was matured in Oloroso sherry and bottled for the European market. North Star Spirits is a Glasgow based independent bottler founded by Iain Croucher in 2016, known for transparent labelling and a focus on lesser explored distilleries.

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 gives the rancio chemistry time to develop while keeping the underlying spirit character forward. 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.