Arran 21 year old single barrel Green Welly Stop exclusive

I picked this up from the Green Welly Stop a year or so ago when I saw it on offer reduced from £120 to £100. It was bottled exclusively for the Green Welly Stop by Arran distillery. My bottle is no 481 of 531 bottles from a Sherry Butt.

I'm a bit of a maker of lists. What are my 10 best films etc. In my whisky hobby this leads me to keeping track of the number of distilleries I've tried and I also keep a mental note of every whisky 20 years or older I've tried. I know in whisky terms 21 years isn’t particularly old. But I am a man of modest means. And whisky is a fairly pricey hobby. With prices rising steeply when a whisky spends two decades or longer in an oak casks. So anything over 20 years is a big purchase for me, complete with fanfare when I open it!

With that in mind I had high hopes of this Arran.

Review is from a bottle that is around 1/4 full and been open 6 months. With a teaspoon of water to a 25ml pour. It has also sat for 20 minutes. This whisky needs time in the glass.

Nose

Ginger biscuits, a bread note, nutmeg, some nail varnish. Not obviously from a Sherry cask. I'd say a 2nd refill at least.

Palate

Warm arrival, with ginger, some pepper and a hint of banana bread? Goes salty on the development.

Finish

Is long with dry oak and tannins.

Overall

Bit underwhelmed by this if I'm honest. It's not unpleasant. It's perfectly sippable. But it is not either obviously from a Sherry cask or obviously 21 years old. If you had a sample at a blind tasting I'd wager you'd guess at neither of those being the case.

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