Ardnamurchan 7 Years Old 2017 AD/11:17 Cask 912

Distilled in November 2017 as part of batch AD/11:17 and bottled in 2024 from single American oak cask 912, this is a 7 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 58.3% ABV. The expression was bottled without dilution as an event exclusive single cask selection.

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 American oak cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for seven years.

American oak as a single cask type focuses cask interaction on vanillin and oak lactones from the toasted and charred staves, with toasted oak sugars driving honey and caramel through Maillard chemistry. The cleaner American oak palette suits Ardnamurchan's lighter new make character. Seven years of cask interaction develops the wood profile from primary extract through the slower Maillard reaction products of hemicellulose oak sugars, building extended honey and lactone register. 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.