Review #915 - Ardnamurchan AD/ 10 Years Old (2025)

Ah, we've been looking forward to this. Over the past few years, Ardnamurchan has become one of our favorite producers, despite the relatively young age of the distillery. Based on their founding year of 2014, the have some 11 year, or potentially even 12 year old whisky at this point; at last, we get to try one of their double-digit age-stated releases with this 10 year single malt from 2025.

The QR code on the back label gives us lots of information about this release. The spirit was made with Concerto barley, and the fermentation length was around 76 hours. Most of the spirit in this batch came from a 2015 vintage, but there is also a small amount of 2014 liquid included; of the 56 total casks used, just 2 of them were Oloroso sherry casks, while the other 54 were ex-bourbon casks. The spirit style is split a bit more evenly, though: 29 casks (52%) of unpeated spirit, compared to 27 casks (48%) of peated spirit.

At bottling time, this single malt was reduced to Ardnamurchan's usual strength of 46.8% ABV.

Ardnamurchan AD/ 10 Years Old (2025)

Scotland/Highland - Single Malt

Price: USD 80 (2026)

Age Statement: 10 Years

Strength: 46.8% ABV

Cask Makeup: Ex-bourbon and Oloroso sherry casks

Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; bottled 2025; 16,380 bottles

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 2 months; bottles at 50%, 40%, and 30% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes

Nose: Really nice spirit character - lots of mineral notes like slate and some charcoal, a bit ashy with a medium peat smoke influence, and soft farmy funk scents. Lots of fruit builds: guava, apples, lemon, orange rind, juicy pear, and honeydew melon across our tasting sessions. Great balance, quite coastal, and we get little accents of vanilla, earth, and buttery pastry.

Palate: The mouthfeel has a medium thickness. Malty, lots of honey, mineral notes return, and we get starchy white fruit and vanilla, as well as creamy guava. Clementine oranges add more fruit, and we get strong earthy notes, as well as sassafras and root beer. The peat smoke is relatively soft; accents like lemon-lime soda, funk, barley, bread crust, and wood spice pop up.

Finish: Effervescent - light fruits of honeydew, tart nectarine, star fruit, and green banana combine with soft musty smoke, a bit of an earthy side, and more mineral notes. It's lightly yeasty, and we get creamy malt mixing with honey, white bread, blanched almond, and vanilla. It grows more subtle; this finish has a medium length.

Final Note: This is a great release from Ardnamurchan - superb cask management, very good balance between spirit character and the wood. We actually found quite a few similarities to the lovely Springbank 10 Year here: soft peat smoke, bright creamy tropical fruits, a bit of musty and earthy character, a hint of funk. The overall balance of the whisky is quite good, and we would say that it drinks older than your typical 10 year single malt.

Value is great here. Ardnamurchan always seems to bring us very fair pricing, and we think that this $80 or so price point for their first core range double-digit age stated release is perfectly fine. This is a very high quality whisky that you can spend some time digging into, and we highly recommend it.

Our Rating: 7.8 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 7.27

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.