Ardnamurchan 8 Years Old 2017 Cask 514 (Finn Thomson Private Cask Collection)

Bottled by Finn Thomson Whisky in 2025 from single ex Bourbon cask 514 under the Private Cask Collection imprint, this is an 8 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2017 distilled spirit at 56.4% ABV. Bottled without dilution for Europe. Finn Thomson is a Scottish indie bottler focused on small batch single casks.

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 ex Bourbon American oak cask and matured on site at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing for eight years.

Ex Bourbon American oak focuses cask contribution on vanillin and the cis isomer of whisky lactone from the toasted and charred staves, with hemicellulose oak sugars driving honey and vanilla through Maillard chemistry. The cleaner American oak palette suits Ardnamurchan's lighter new make and lets fermentation derived esters carry through without sherry darkness to mask them. Eight years develops the ex Bourbon profile through its secondary phase, with extended Maillard products joining the vanillin and oak lactone signature. 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.