Ardnamurchan AD/02.22 Cask Strength

Bottled in February 2022, AD/02.22 is one of the earlier Cask Strength expressions from Ardnamurchan, presented at 58.7% ABV without dilution. The vatting draws on 2014 and 2015 vintage stock from the distillery's first two years of production, matured in ex Bourbon and Oloroso casks.

Both peated and unpeated production runs from the distillery's split regime feed this release. 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, then 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 at Glenbeg in dunnage warehousing on the peninsula.

Ex Bourbon American oak frames the lighter side of the cask programme, contributing vanillin and oak lactones from the toasted and charred staves. The Oloroso component drives dried fruit and oxidative depth through rancio chemistry, with slow polyphenol and aldehyde oxidation during extended oxygen exposure generating the Maillard reaction products characteristic of sherry maturation. Full strength bottling preserves the fermentation derived esters that would otherwise be lost through dilution, while peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) sit as structural backbone behind the sherry foreground.