Legend has it that the small Isle of Arran once had 50 distilleries working on it. With none remaining for some time though, the team at Lochranza Distillery set out in 1995 to resurrect the island’s whisky making ways.
As with any new distillery, the team on the Isle of Arran have been learning their craft and learning from their lessons. Since it was first able to hit the milestone, The Arran Malt (now just “Arran”) has released a 10 year old single malt as its flagship expression.
This non-peated whisky has been matured across a decade in primarily bourbon barrels, with a touch of the stock coming from Sherry casks.
As with all Arran releases, this is available without colouring or chill-filtration – the natural product. It is bottled at a generous 46% ABV, and a full size bottle is currently available for around £42 GBP (at the time of writing).
Nose
Sweet malt and vanilla make for a sweet opener. There’s a heather honey mix of floral notes and sweetness with cinder toffee and honeycomb-like flavours adding to the sugary sensations, with a nice little lemon citrus cutting through it and preventing it from being an overly sweet and one dimensional affair. A little oak spice is noticeable too.
Taste
A soft and sweet vanilla-like arrival makes for a really welcoming texture. There are gentle floral and citrus notes that all meld with honey-like sweetness and buttery toast flavours – a breakfast whisky? Maybe there’s a strong enough bite and depth to maybe push it back to lunch 😉
Finish
The decade of oak maturation brings a distinct cinnamon spice and tingly finale with the strength do the alcohol complementing it very well.
Verdict
A really solid 10yo single malt. It has the distinct malted barley flavour of the original base spirit from a decade ago providing sugary sweetness which sits well alongside the primarily bourbon barrel’s big vanilla influence. There’s just enough else going on from the sweeter flavours though to keep you interested and guessing.
It’s great that this is the core release for the Lochranza distillery as their flagship expression and I can see how it is the start point of their taste profiles. They have quite a few cask experimentations now and do tend to shy away from the age statements (unless you fancy shelling out for the big 25yo!) in favour of demonstrating flavour and cask influence – making it cool to see that this remains available and representing that iconic decade milestone.
Arran have never held back on the ABV. All whisky nerds love to see a 46%er and it really does fair well here. Other core releases even stretch to stick around the 50% ABV figure.
The new design and bottle shape is so cool too. Their original ones smacked of clinging to traditional methods, but for a new distillery in an old game, they’ve thankfully changed up their style and embraced a modern styling and bottle which really stands out.
Also: changing from “The Arran Malt”, to simply “Arran”, was a great move and it stands as testament to its heritage more so than referencing malt. It’s bold (in both purpose and font style!) and simply states and stands by its origin.
Overall, a great single malt and one that stands out on its own, and set a high standard by which the rest of its range must compare.
M
Sample disclosure: This is a sample that I have had kicking around round for a long time, originally received through The Dram Team subscription. All notes are intended as an honest, fair, and independent review of the whisky itself and not as a promotion. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.
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