Ardnamurchan 7 Years Old 2016 AD/02:16 CK.65

Distilled in February 2016 as part of batch AD/02:16 and bottled in 2023 from single Oloroso sherry cask CK.65, this is a 7 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 57.9% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution for the French 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 seven 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. Seven years of cask interaction allows the rancio chemistry to develop while preserving lighter volatile compounds through the high fill strength and cool dunnage conditions. 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.