Arran Cask Finishes
With this review, Arran’s single malt becomes the first whisky to feature twice on WhiskyReviews.net (I’m sure the team in Lochranza are punching the air in wild celebration as I type!). I’ve been a fan of their malt for a while though so it makes sense that they would pop up on the regular. This particular expression also highlights a technique known as ‘finishing’, a trend in the industry that I wanted to talk about.
The Arran malt is a relative newcomer by Scotch standards – the first-ever 18-year-old arrived in 2015 – and the distillery is unusual in that it produces a light, fruity spirit, more akin to the whiskies of Speyside than the spirit made on Scotland’s other islands. The team’s dedication to bottling at a higher strength also helps to showcase the malt in the best possible light, with a fullness of flavour you just don’t get at 40% abv. There is a core range of 10, 12, 14 and 18-year-old expressions, with occasional single cask releases and a series of ‘Cask Finishes’ that offer some intriguing new spins on the distillery character.
As mentioned in my review of Gordon & MacPhail’s Highland Park 2006 cask strength release, Bourbon Barrels account for the vast majority of casks used in Scotch maturation. In the past, however, most of the nation’s spirit would likely have been aged in European Oak casks, used to transport various wines from the continent. The huge decline in the popularity of sherry and port has made them rather difficult to obtain, however. Which is a problem for Scotch because the flavours imparted by these casks can be wonderful, not to mention crucial to the overall character of the whisky.
Sometimes a blender will play around with different casks in order to create the desired flavour profile. Sometimes the spend will spend most of its ageing in one cask before being transferred to another one to take on new layers of flavour. This is the technique known as finishing. It’s most often used to create additional flavours in whiskies that have been matured in bourbon casks.
At Arran, there has been a whole series of releases showcasing this idea. The three currently available, are the ex-Sauternes, ex-Port and ex-Amarone Cask Finishes, each of which is unique and interesting but for me, it’s the latter that really stands out.
Smell: Chocolate Orange – Jaffa Cakes! Cherries and cranberries with some toffee and caramel. Vanilla. Pepper.
Taste: Amarone is a dry Red Wine from Italy and you find some of that dryness here. The chocolatey orange vibe continues here too. Cranberry. Red grapes and a little warming touch of cinnamon.
Thoughts: Arran seems to be quite a flexible single malt. It performs well in bourbon, sherry and apparently, Italian red wine casks. Their Cask Finish series is pretty strong in general but the Amarone is definitely a personal favourite. The winey top notes add something really interesting to the character of the Arran malt that’s quite unlike anything else on the market at present – and it’s also very reasonably priced at £45. That’s particularly good for a malt bottled at 50%. Arran took a while to find its way into people’s affections but for me, the distillery has really found its feet in the last couple of years. I’d even argue that it’s one of the better performers on the market now – with five or six excellent and affordable drams regularly available. Great distillery, great whisky.
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