Whisky Connosr
Menu
Shop Join

Discussions

Arran - pretty comprehensive vertical / H-T-H

6 13

RikS started a discussion

Yesterday we had the pleasure to enjoy an evening of Arran tasting with global brand ambassador Mariella in London. And yes, @casualtorture I thought of you. A few known expressions, a few new ones, and even something that’s not yet in the market – thanks for that!

I won’t relay all the pitch-talk here, suffice to say that key aspects that they are very proud of are the quality of their water (claimed to be the purest and best in Scotland) and the slooow distilling process and the tropical-type and unique (ehrm) sweetness across the line-up. But hey, this is a quality distillery with lovely people, so they have earned the right to be proud!

So, I thought I’d just make a few very short comments on the line-up below –

And I thought I’d simply steal the rating scale for this one from Malt-Review (and hence, yes, do the outrageous thing of allowing price to play into the take)-

1/10 – Probably Fujikai 10 years old…

2/10 – Would go a long way to avoid ever drinking this again.

3/10 – Pretty not great. Or astonishingly dull. Either way, no thanks.

4/10 – Glimmers of hope, but the negatives draw more focus than the positives.

5/10 – Bang average. Not bad, per se, but don’t expect your pulse to raise.

6/10 – Pretty good. Worth a glass now and then, but perhaps not one for a special occasion.

7/10 – Very good. Might um and ah over buying a full bottle if the price is high, but you can buy a glass with confidence. If it’s under £50, take a punt.

8/10 – Really excellent. Well worth picking up a bottle. If it’s under £50 you shouldn’t think twice.

9/10 – Exceptional stuff. The missing mark is probably because we’re fussy.

10/10 – Mind-bendingly brilliant. Whisky almost has no business being this good. An absolute must-taste. To expect more would be soulless and churlish.

Arran 10: the foundation. It’s very affordable, but it is 46% and UCF, and frankly strikes a pretty good balance overall. 70% 1st fill bourbon, 30% sherry of unknown provenance. Viscous, strong elements of vanilla stalks, and fresh green peppercorns. Pretty lasting and lingering finish. Rating 6/10.

Arran 14: Yea, you’d expect this one here wouldn’t you? However, the simple fact is, we were told, that they have run out and it ain’t coming back. Sorry folks, better stack up as I know many who hold this one as their favourite in the lineup. Who knows, if you get a load you may be able to sell them off to the same people that used to pay hundreds of pounds for Glendronach 15 relaxed

Arran 18: this one has the casks inverted with the 10: 70% sherry, 30% 1st fill bourbon and also bottled at 46% and NCF. Hmm… it’s thick and oily, yet I get (surprisingly) some more alco-burn than in the 10 (that is impossible - probably me, not the dram). Orange, more orange, and with a few drops of water grapefruit with a pleasant bitterness to it. It’s elderly, broken leather and wood-musty box. Very heavy on the sherry, maybe a bit... too much? I’d need to be in the mood for this one frankly. Of the 18 years olds out there… at the price… not sure. 6/10

Arran “The Bothy”: a bothy is apparently little houses scattered around the Scottish landscape where you can stay a few hours for free if needed – there you go, learned something new! This one is young and zippy, 8-9 years old and bottled at 53.8%. It’s 1st fill bourbon cask, and then squeezed for even more bourbon by spending the last 18 months in quarter casks! So, not surprisingly, it’s… very much... bourbon. A bit similar experience to the Kavalan ex-bourbon oak. Impression, well, I’m not much of a bourbon drinker so this one may have just taken a step too far… lots of orange and viscous sweetness. 4/10

Arran “Master of Distilling” (2nd batch, I believe): this one is actually not out yet (see photo), so we got a unique pre-taste which was very generous and kind. It’s 12 years old, finished in Palo Cortado sherry casks [sherrynotes.com/sherry-types/palo-cortado/] and bottled at 51.8%. The main surprise here was the total departure from Arran’s viscous and luscious palate, as this one was literally thin by comparison. It’s sweet and fruity, with the ever-present orange peel and zest that's the Arran style. It was interesting because it was a pretty notable departure from the lineup generally, but when we went around the table to pick everyone's favourite of the evening, this one remained silent, let’s just say. 5/10

Arran “Cask Finish – Amarone”: young again, 8-9 years old and bottled at 50% spot on. What a nose!! The wine influence is there in spades with the Amarone from ‘Allegrini’ vineyard in Veneto (Venice area) and it not a surprise that the sweet Amarone is one of the most well known and appreciated Italian wines. Wonderful nose. However… the palate didn’t manage to keep up with the eloquence of the nose. The sweetness is pleasant, but there’s a whiff of solvents present (too young?) and it’s just pretty.. linear and one-sided. You want something ‘complex’, move on. It’s really a pity that the palate fell on it's nose (or vice versa maybe in this case!?)… One can only imagine what this could have been had they let it for another couple of years and maybe toned down the 1st fill intensity to allow for a balanced interplay with the wine cask. As someone put it pretty astutely I thought: it’s a young Arran with a blanket of sweet Amarone, but they don’t come together/. 5/10

Arran “Côte Rotie”: another wine cask, this time French. Bottled at 50% and still pretty young 8-9 years, with 8 months in wine casks. This isn’t mind-blowingly complex either, but compared to the Amarone this one feels much more integrated and ‘together’. If you like the Arran style and want to try something a little different – I dare say this is a great place to go. The wine influence is very present but neither overwhelming nor shy. Other than the surprise that the 10 stacked up so well against the rest of the lineup, this was probably a favourite and most pleasant experience. It did receive friendly nods from a number of the room participants 8/10

Arran “Machrie Moor”: Hey, everyone needs to get onto that peated bandwagon, and this is Arran’s take on it: 20ppm with non-Islay peat and hence said to eliminate the medicinal, tcp style in favour of a drier smoky approach. It’s 7-8 years (see a trend?!) and bottled at CS of 58.2% (note: there’s also a watered down version of this selling at 46%, exactly the same juice though). The nose is… Arran with some peat. And on the mouth it’s hot. Aoch! To hot. It’s salty, and it’s a very ashy dry smoke. No… sorry… this doesn’t work for me (then again, I also have a problem with Kilkerran's saltiness, so blame me and not Arran cause some loved it). Too young, too hot, too in your face despite the low ppm. If I wanted something young and zippy with peat, this is not where I’d go. 3/10

Overall, A great evening with a distillery that definetly have their own foundation style, which is really well presented in the 10 (and to my recollection, even more so and with a great balance in the 14).

Now scoop they are also just about to launch their re-branding, and with peat introduced and a few expressions appearing a bit too prematurely taken in the 7-8-9 years bracket, one sort of suspects where this may go....

I just get the feeling at times (general observation, not towards Arran mind you) that someone came up with the formula that bottling at cask strength, and adding something 'extreme' to stand out (be it peatiness or cask finishing), then sprinkle with some mythological Scottish elements (and don't get me started on Vikings!), and voila - gotta be a winner, as long as it's more than 4 years, right??

One has to admire their experimentation though and having fun with casks, but with a base lineup losing the 14, and a whole series of experimental wine casks out there, and now peated expressions selling in two different bottles depending on whether you want the CS or the 46% version where someone else has just added the water for you (and selling at about £5 price difference) - one wonders if there isn't a risk that venerable Arran may lose a bit of its identity in the process?

4 years ago

Expand image

13 replies

@OdysseusUnbound

I enjoyed the Arran 10, but to hear that the excellent 14 is being discontinued is worrisome. And all the experimentation with young, I mean non age-stated whiskies seems to be the culprit. I guess I don’t blame them for trying to make money NOW buy it seems incredibly short-sighted. All the 8 year old whisky they’re bottling now is whisky that can’t be bottled and sold as a 14 year old whisky in 6 years. disappointed

4 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@OdysseusUnbound

I can’t say I have the same love for the distillery. I really wanted to. I have an excellent SMWS single cask bottling that my in-laws happened upon at a charity silent auction without knowing what it was. It was great. I scored it 90

After trying that I cracked a mini 100 proof version and gave it an 84. I then tried a MOM sample of 12 YO CS batch 4 because is was for sale at a decent price and I wanted to know whether I should stock up. I gave it an 80 and passed on buying it.

As for the 14 YO, I don’t think I’ve tried it, but given my past experience, I would not buy it to drink. If I thought I could find a “market” I might stash away some if it is being discontinued as at the LCBO it is priced low for a 14YO, but alas, there are none currently available.

4 years ago 1Who liked this?

@cricklewood
cricklewood replied

@RikS thanks for the in depth write-up of your evening, great to see a full scope review like this. Sounds like you had a fun time despite some of the brand ambassador malarkey. I welcome more posts of the like.

Some observations:

-The NAS cask finish line of Arran has been around for a long time, usually bottled at 50% ABV they had eventually consolidated it to Port, Amarone, Sauternes, Sherry but I think there are occasionally different ones like the Cote Rotie you mentioned. Most we're sweet and a bit heavy handed, the Port was pretty good.

-I am sad to see the 14 get pulled from the line-up, it`s the sweet spot. I don't know if this signals NAS as they've been committed to an age stated line-up, especially building up to the release of the 21 yr old last year. I know the 14 has intermittently disappeared from circulation, hopefully it will return.

-Machrie Moor, they've been bottling a NAS peated version of Arran for about 10 yrs now (in fact the new distillery they've opened will be dedicated solely to peated make). It is hit and miss, the cask strength version which they batch release every year is better but still not 100% solid, that said I tried a single cask 7 year old peated Arran that was stunning, so perhaps with a distillery dedicated to making the stuff they will be able to hone in and created a better output rather than only making it once a year for a couple of weeks.

Despite their strengths and commitment to 46%ABV and NCF, they are also prone the special edition marketing B.S. ostentatiously packaged versions released in sets of 3 has been their Modus Operandi thus far.

-You make great observations about brands losing their identity especially when following the formula set by many distillers who have become almost cynical in their output.

4 years ago 3Who liked this?

@RianC
RianC replied

No more Arran 14!?! frowning

4 years ago 2Who liked this?

RikS replied

@cricklewood thank you very much for the great feedback! @RianC 'fraid not mate. There are still bottles in circulation though (but Amazon is out of stock, as is The Whisky Exchange and Master of Malt - just realised with a quick internet scan!) I picked up the last one myself at Royal Mile :-)

4 years ago 2Who liked this?

@RianC
RianC replied

@RikS - Well done! I just looked as well and saw some on Amazon but mostly for silly money . . . Shame as it's a damn fine malt. Still, I've had this nagging feeling for a while I should stock up and haven't - hey ho!

4 years ago 1Who liked this?

RikS replied

@RianC Bah, I've decided to completely ignore the FOMO/end-of-line-panic. There's so much good whisky out there to try and revisit, that if one expression disappears, I'm pretty certain my life will go on happily anyway. .

.

.

.

.

except for Uigeadail of course!!!!!!!!!! laughing

4 years ago 2Who liked this?

@cricklewood
cricklewood replied

Here's the info straight from the source, it is both the 14 and 18 that are slowly trickling down to 0.

arranwhisky.com/about/news/…

They claim it's temporary, but who knows what they decide to do? @RikS yeah FOMO is the killer, there is a lot of good whisky out there to try for sure depends on the strategy one adopts.

4 years ago 0

RikS replied

@cricklewood pretty daft website though. First informing that the 14 and 18 is not available... Then a link to buy them... And when you press the link it presents the bottle, price, and says out of stock blush

4 years ago 0

@cricklewood
cricklewood replied

@RikS Oh this was taken from the April mailing list so my link is a bit out of date, I just remembered reading something about all this back when on the email they sent out.

4 years ago 0

@casualtorture

Are they really discontinuing the 14 or is this a prank?

4 years ago 0

RikS replied

@casualtorture No joke I'm afraid my friend - dead serious

4 years ago 1Who liked this?

@casualtorture

@RikS F! Looks like I need to raise the limit on my credit card! F!!!!

4 years ago 1Who liked this?

Liked by:

@MadSingleMalt@Hewie@Victor@casualtorture@RianC + 1 others

You must be signed-in to comment here

Sign in