Related Products
Products you may like
This was a really wonderful nose, full of robust aromas of polished leather, pipe tobacco, camphor and precious hardwoods full of resins. We also got sultanas, raisins, prunes and dark, boozy fruit cake. A great sherry profile, we all agreed. With water it evolved beautifully, revealing chen pi orange peels, five spice, tangerines and highly resinous and herbal complexities. When neat, the palate showed immediate, superb sherry influence. It was rich and balanced, with old-style weight and earthy depth. We noted thick, syrupy dark fruit flavours, balsamic, rancio and walnut liqueur with natural tar resin. Water made everything perfect, as dark fruit intensity harmonised with nuts, cocoa, dark chocolate, tobacco and some ancient Fins Bois cognac. Lush and wonderful stuff!
About Arran
The Isle of Arran has played host to many distilleries, mostly illicit and the last legal distillery closed in 1835. What is surprising is that it took until 1995 for a still to run again as the Arran distillery at Lochranza came online. Financed mostly by Harold Currie who had retired from Chivas, the team also sought investment from 2000 investors who gave up £450 for a share of future whiskies. Many of whom turned up for the official opening, including a descendent of the last person to be killed on Arran for distilling illegally. Since the initial days, Arran distillery has prospered thanks to an array of cask types and special editions. The whisky, in time, has come of age and growing demand meant an expansion in 2017, with a new pair of stills. Things went even further in 2019 when a second distillery (Lagg) was established at the southern end of Arran.
