Ardnamurchan 8 Years Old 2017 Cask C25140 (Claxton’s Warehouse No. 1)

Bottled by Claxton's in 2025 from single ex Bourbon cask C25140 under the Warehouse No. 1 imprint, this is an 8 Years Old Ardnamurchan from 2017 distilled spirit at 57.6% ABV. Bottled without dilution for Europe. Claxton's is a Yorkshire based independent bottler with the Warehouse No. 1 series.

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 of maturation develops the ex Bourbon contribution well into its secondary phase, with the slower Maillard products of hemicellulose oak sugars joining the primary vanillin and lactone extract. 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.