Stop number 111 on the SDT is Ardnamurchan. Another newcomer to the scotch game, Ardnamurchan is a Highland distillery that is located the furthest west on the Scottish mainland, on a far reaching peninsula which is also named Ardnamurchan. Its name is Gaelic for “headland of the great seas”. Legally speaking, this cannot he called a scotch whisky, as the 3 year old stock they have was blended with a 1 year old spirit, which makes this a 1 year old spirit and not a whisky (because as everybody knows scotch must be a minimum of 3 years old). Bottled at 55.3% ABV and is non chill filtered and natural color of a dark orange amber. Ardnamurchan splits their distillations between peated and unpeated, but this is a mixture of each, and matured in first fill PX and Oloroso sherry casks. The nose is malty sherry with some light peat. Fruity with oranges, apricots and maybe even some rhubarb. Hazelnut, pecans, salted caramel, chocolate, vanilla and barley sugar. More sherry. Wood spice, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and fennel. Some brown sugar. Water brought out orange and raspberry flavored chocolate. The palate has a sweet heat arrival. It’s turns more savory than sweet, and even a little bitter. A nice medium-light peat level, but not quite as smoky as it is earthy. Pepper, nutmeg and chocolate licorice. Water takes the heat out and focuses in on the peat and brings out the smoke. A medium bodied mouthfeel that is very oily and mouthwatering. The finish is long with sherry, oranges and peat, but is also bitter and tannic, dry. If ever there was a waste of first fill sherry casks it’s here. Burning first fill casks on a release that can’t even be called scotch strikes me as foolish. Those should be used for a minimum, A MINIMUM, of 8 years to get real depth of character and not just window dressing. Of course if you have some first fill casks that aren’t the best quality they can be used for a quick 1 year finish, but that’s not what’s happening here. Also, I feel like the peat/sherry combination didn’t really work here and they were at odds with each other rather than working in concert. First fill or even refill bourbon casks are better for the very young peated malts, with maybe a quick sherry or port finish. Now if you are talking about an older peated whisky, sherry may work better. Perhaps in a few years this may turn out to be a real gem, but in its present form it’s not quite ready for the spotlight. Still, it has a good flavor base to work with. 3.5 and thanks to @LeeEvolved for the sample. Cheers