Ardnamurchan AD/01.21:01 Release 1

Released in January 2021 as the inaugural numbered Core Range batch from the distillery, AD/01.21:01 is also tagged as Release 1 in the Ardnamurchan series. Bottled at 46.8% ABV from ex Bourbon and Pedro Ximenez casks, with 16,476 bottles for the European market.

The release combines both peated and unpeated production runs from the distillery's split regime, with the peated portion noticeably forward in this expression. Concerto barley is milled into a copper topped semi lauter mash tun, fermented 72 to 120 hours in seven stainless steel washbacks on a single strain distiller's yeast and double distilled through wash and spirit stills with reflux boil balls to a new make of 74 to 76% ABV. Spirit was filled at 63.5% and matured on site in dunnage warehousing at Glenbeg.

Ex Bourbon American oak frames vanilla and citric brightness through vanillin and oak lactones from the char layer. The Pedro Ximenez fraction, sweeter and more concentrated than Oloroso, drives the honey and oily mouthfeel through residual PX sugars and high viscosity sherry remnants, contrasting with the cleaner Bourbon side. The medicinal note in the profile is the marker of peated phenol character, specifically cresols and 4 methylguaiacol from the Highland peat fired malt, giving the iodine and dry leaf register that distinguishes Highland peat from the more marine bromophenol heavy Islay profile.