[Review] Arran 20 Year Old 1996 Single Cask

So for this week's final review heading into Spirit of Toronto, which is tomorrow evening and I'm very excited about the masterclasses coming up for it, I decided to share a review of a whisky that I really enjoyed recently which is this 20 year old Arran single malt which is a single cask release so bottled out of 1 barrel and not just a vatting of multiple barrels like most distillery manager's generally do.

Arran is an interesting distillery because it is one of the only Island distilleries known for its unpeated malt rather than its peated malt whisky. Arran was founded in 1994 in the Isle of Arran in the town of Lochranza on the north coast of the isle. It was founded by former Chivas director Harold Currie who wanted to start a distillery on the island due to its rich heritage in distilling, albeit illegally, and founded the first new distillery on Arran since Lagg closed down in 1834. By the time their first legal single malt was ready it became the first single malt served on Arran in 160 years. At a time before construction was finished a family of golden eagles made a nest in the distillery so construction was halted for a while due to the protected nature of the species. The distillery owner saw this as a sign and decided to use the image of the golden eagle on the packaging of Arran whiskies which you can see in the box above.

Now for this single malt it comes from an early point in the distillery's history as it was started in 1996, 1 year after Arran opened. It's matured solely in a refill sherry puncheon, so likely a pedro ximenez sherry maturation, and is bottled at 52.6% ABV. It was a barrel purchased and sold by the LCBO in Ontario, Canada for around $212 CAD.

• Colour: Light amber
• Nose: Rich honeysuckle, caramel, vanilla, floral, stone fruits, sweet tropical fruits
• Taste: Light anise, vanilla, caramel, rich baking spice, stone fruits, raisin, floral notes, citrus fruits, a hint of sweet pineapple
• Finish: Medium-Long with spicy stone fruits, white pepper and caramel

Wow this is really good stuff. Despite my fears for this bottling I was very surprised at how good this whisky was the whole way through. The nose is nice and the palate is simply delicious. Lots of complexity and a great mix of sweet, floral and spicy notes throughout. Outside of some bitterness on the palate I don’t really have any qualms outside of maybe a fuller body and a longer finish. For the price offered I’d say it was a good buy for me but because of my bias I’ll say try before you buy.

86 pts

 

Current Review Scoring System:
 

0-49: Horrible

50-59: Bad

60-69: Mediocre to Average

70-74: Average to Good

75-79: Good to Great

80-84: Great to Excellent

85-89: Excellent

90-94: Superb

95+: Masterpiece

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