Ardnamurchan – 2016 Sherry Cask Japan Exclusive (70cl, 57.1%)

This Ardnamurchan is a Japan exclusive, bottled at 57.1% ABV in a 70cl bottle. It is a vatting of four casks, all sherry-matured: a peated and an unpeated Spanish oak Pedro Ximenez hogshead, distilled in 2015 and 2016, and a peated and an unpeated American oak Oloroso octave, from the same two years. Half the whisky is peated and half unpeated. The aroma has coffee, ink, camphor, leather furniture, peat smoke and grass, followed by raisins and dried apricots. On the palate come fig, prune jam, cashew nut chocolate, brine-pickled black olives and medium sherry. The finish brings dried shellfish, diesel oil, pencil, chocolate-covered wheat, karinto, heather blossom and sage.