Ardnamurchan AD/ Cask Strength Release 2024

Released in 2024 within the Ardnamurchan Cask Strength Release programme, this batch is bottled at 58.3% ABV without dilution from 2016 and 2017 vintage stock. The distillery filled 7,222 bottles for the European market in this small run.

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 copper pot 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 for seven to eight years.

Ex Bourbon American oak frames vanillin and oak lactones at the structural base. The Oloroso fraction drives oxidative depth through rancio chemistry, where slow polyphenol and aldehyde oxidation during sherry contact generates the Maillard reaction products characteristic of sherry maturation. The cooked vegetable and mossy notes in the profile point to retained sulfur and earthy congeners carried from the peated portion's higher ppm load, where the reflux boil ball partially strips but does not eliminate phenol partner compounds. Honey and malt extract reflect Maillard interaction with hemicellulose oak sugars, with peated phenols (guaiacol, syringol, 4 methylguaiacol from St Fergus Highland peat at 30 to 35 ppm) integrating as smoke backbone.