Ardnamurchan 6 Years Old AD/ Cask 1143 Warehouse Release

Bottled in 2025 from single Oloroso sherry cask 1143, this is a 6 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 53.2% ABV. The expression was released as a Visitor Centre Warehouse Release, a programme of single cask bottlings available through the distillery and for the Netherlands market.

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. The relatively modest 53.2% cask strength suggests either a higher fill maturation environment or a more evaporative cask, with the lower strength preserving a softer integration of cask and spirit. 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.