A Scot on Scotch

WHISKY REVIEWS, NEWS, HISTORY & FOLKLORE

An old favourite… and a new one.

Back in October, I embarked on a wee family holiday to the Isle of Arran. This has been a regular on the Murphy itinerary for a few years now and I always thoroughly enjoy our wee trips to the island though I must admit, stress levels were a bit higher than normal this time around. Thanks mostly to the ongoing struggle Caledonian MacBrayne is having with providing a functioning and reliable ferry service.

Arran lies between the Mull of Kintyre and the Ayrshire coast. The ferry from the mainland only lasts about an hour, making it a popular destination for holiday makers and day trippers. The route is one of the busiest in Scotland, especially during the summer months and school holidays like the October week (when I visited).

Cal Mac have found themselves short on ferries of late. Some seem to break down more than they operate and others have been pulled from service altogether due to their advanced years. Significant delays on the replacements has been of further hindrance. The October service was bolstered by a borrowed Pentland Ferries vessel but since it couldn’t sail from Ardrossan, our journey was changed (with very little warning) to Troon and an hour earlier than we had planned. The sailing took twenty minutes longer than normal with no tea, coffee or drinks facilities available and the general feel of the ferry was cold and functional compared to the cozy familiarity of a proper Cal Mac.

We had similar issues on the return. A grim weather front reared its ugly head so we cut our holiday short by a day so as to avoid finding ourselves stuck on the island. Normally I wouldn’t be opposed to some extra time in Arran but I had plans to travel to Islay a couple of days later and the window between weather fronts was getting smaller and smaller. A good tip for travelling to any of the Scottish islands is to build flexibility into your trip. You just never know what might come your way.

Nevertheless, our time in Arran was well worth it and offered me an opportunity to drop into a pair of distilleries of which I’m very fond. Lochranza feels like an old friend. I’m not sure how many times I’ve visited but it must be at least 6 or 7. Lagg is less familiar but no stranger, since I visited back in 2021.

The trip to each of the distilleries highlights the contrast between Arran’s north and south. You can really see why the island is known as Scotland in miniature! We were able to enjoy the scenery because we booked a local taxi company for each trip. This was expensive but worth it so that our group could relax without any concern of driving unfamiliar roads (or missing out on some lovely drams!). Our driver’s local knowledge also added to the whole experience.

Lochranza was the original Arran Distillery. It launched in the mid-90s when the whisky industry was still licking its wounds from the crash of the 1980s. It may not have seemed the wisest idea at the time but the distillery is now a stalwart of the Scotch whisky scene with many a loyal follower. As for the surroundings, a more picturesque setting for a distillery would be hard to imagine with steep hills on either side that provide shelter for deer and eagles and various other beasties.

We visited on a moody, overcast day which gave the mountanous terrain quite the atmosphere but the welcome was warm, the tour informative, the guide entertaining and the drams delicious. You know you’re in for a good tasting when the starter dram is 18 years old. We departed a few hours later with a belly full of lovely whisky and a bottle of the hand-fill distillery exclusive tucked under the arm.

The next day looked a bit different. Things were bright and clear as left Brodick behind. Our route took us along the String, the road that cuts diagonally across the centre of the island. When we hit the west coast, however, and turned south towards Lagg, we became enveloped by a thick fog. The grey moodiness of Lochranza was being given a run for its money by the eerie whiteout of Lagg. You could almost imagine John Carpenter’s phantom pirates emerging from the gloom to drag us to a watery grave.

Lagg opened in 2019 and released its first whisky in 2022. As a weighty, heavily peated dram, the spirit was always likely to be in my wheelhouse but I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve encountered thus far. I think core releases like Corriecravie and Kilmory have wee touches of rawness about them that will iron out as the years pass but the quality and the potential of the spirit has always been in evidence. Once again, I was drawn to the distillery exclusive, which, at 5-years-old, was the oldest bottling from the distillery thus far.

Lochranza Distillery Exclusive

This bottling saw Arran take something of an everything-in-one-pot approach to whisky making. The cask was a 2nd fill sherry hogshead but the liquid inside is a real mix. There’s spirit from ex-Fino sherry casks, Tokaji Hungarian wine casks, Bourgogne and even some quarter casks that were filled back in 2010. It’s bottled at 47.9% abv.

Tasting notes: Plenty of sherry on the nose with raisins, figs, walnuts and leather. There’s ginger, there’s manuka honey, there’s golden syrup and dry spices like nutmeg and clove. Throw in some dark chocolate and coffee, too. Then things turn bready – like rye bread. Those red laces sweets. Soy sauce and Hoi Sin. It arrives on the palate in a big wave of different flavours that’s quite hard to decipher at first. The sherry influence feels sweet and woody, like an older PX. There’s lots of dried fruits, dark chocolate, charcoal and black pepper. Nutmeg and ginger. Orange peel and marmalade. Dark, oaky spices. Toffee.

Thoughts: This is a total riot – in the best possible way. Rather than feeling like the production of an over-excited blender, it comes comes across like the happiest of alchemical accidents. Like those rare occasions your infinity bottle comes together beautifully (right before you add more peat and balls it up again). The low abv helps. Maybe it’s just a personal thing but I find Arran to be quite a spicy spirit and I often have to water down their cask strength releases to get the best out of them. At 47.9%, it offers a richness and a fullness of flavour without the intensity of the spice and spirit heat. I’m absolutely loving it.

Price: £80. Certainly not a cheap dram but a lovely one – and bizarrely reasonable when compared with some other distillery hand-fills. Most importantly, it’s a belter and justifies its price.

Lagg Distillery Exclusive

Here we have a 5-year-old whisky, fully aged in a first-fill ex-bourbon barrel. It’s bottled at 60.9%.

Tasting notes: I got a real sense of the barley on the nose. It’s grassy. There’s straw and cereals. Biscuits and honey. Slightly floral perfume, sweet pastries, cinnamon, vanilla. Also, of course, some dry, ashy smoke with some salty sea air thrown in for good measure. Salt and pepper on the palate, with a honeyed sweetness. Barley, biscuits and toffee. More of the grassiness with muesli and cereal. Buttery pastry. Dry baking spices. Around the midway point, some oak comes through and then some liquorice before the grassy smoke (think burning hay bales) bursts in the finish.

Thoughts: This one is a bit easier to come to terms with than the previous offering. It showcases a classic combination of peated spirit and bourbon cask but does it very well. I’m impressed by how patient the release of the smoke is on the palate. It holds and holds until the finish before bursting into life. I thnk this is probably the best thing I’ve tasted from Lagg thus far and if it’s any indication of the distillery’s future, I’m all in.

Price: £80. May seem a lot for such a young dram but for me it was worth it. The quality is there to back it up and it’s always nice to have something unique to the time of your visit.

---

For more on Arran Whisky visit here

For more on Lagg visit here

---

Subscribe to A Scot on Scotch

---

Donate to A Scot on Scotch

---