Arran The Devil's Punch Bowl Chapter 1

When I heard about this one a few weeks ago, I was very keen to know more. What an unusual name (good work PR guys!). But when I saw the amazing box and the bottle and heard what’s inside, I knew I HAD to try this one sooner or later (sooner is better). If this is the first time you’ve heard about this new Arran I must tell you what’s it all about. In essence this is a vatting of hand picked casks by Arran’s distillery manager James MacTaggart, and features both peated and unpeated casks (this is a first for Arran to mix those two types of malt). The peated ones are quite young aged 6 and have been aged in ex-Bourbon casks, while the unpeated spent more time in Sherry casks (the oldest being 16 yo). All in all 24 casks were used for this bottling, and mixed together bottled un-chill filtered at cask strength of 52.3% ABV. Sweet! This is a fairly limited release (as limited as they go, when featuring quite a few casks) of 6,660 (devilish eh?) bottles. Ok, It sounds lovely, It looks even more lovely (see pic), it must taste lovely, right? Well, it does. and now we’re going to have a wee taste.

Nose: Starting with some sherry goodness:dried fruit,Mainly apricot and a veil of peat. Earthy peat not medicinal but it’s there alright! Some more Kirsch and orange peel, mint anyone?

Palate: a great combo of dried fruit salad, peat and smoke with an earthy touch to it. Dirty sherry sort of. Just as I like it. Sweet yet dark. With the peat giving it another dimension without going into the smoky Islay kind.

Finish: Cocoa powder. Dried apricot. Cherries, wood and wisps of smoke.

The best Arran I’ve tasted. I really liked the sherry / peat combo, it’s very different and not overpowering (the peat), and the sum is greater than its parts. Good selection of casks, and vatting. A good buy, and lovely bottle and presentation too. Good stuff.

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