Ardnamurchan 7 Years Old (Whisky Sponge)

Bottled by Decadent Drinks under the Whisky Sponge label in 2024, this is a 7 Years Old Ardnamurchan at 57.1% ABV from Oloroso sherry maturation. The expression was bottled for the German market. Whisky Sponge is the sharp witted bottling and commentary brand of Angus MacRaild and Decadent Drinks, known for irreverent label art and frank tasting notes alongside its curated single cask releases.

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 allows the sherry chemistry to develop while keeping the underlying distillate character readable alongside. 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.