Origin: Isle of Arran (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 50%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and quarter cask
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: Lochranza Distillery
Average price: € 90.00
Official website: www.arranwhisky.com
Vote: 87/100
A four-part limited series started in late 2023, which sees Arran’s multi-faceted personalities represented, based on casks chosen by Distillery Manager, Stewart Bowman.
The first bottling, Remnant Renegade, was a NAS containing whiskies of different ages, from those distilled a couple of years after the foundation to those of 2017, drawn from ‘residual’ casks split between ex-sherry and ex-bourbon.
This second bottling comes from the first half of 2024 and is a 42ppm peated malt, so quite strong, aged since 2012 in ex-bourbon barrels and then moved in 2018 in quarter casks from the American Koval, acquired on a one-off basis and in reduced quantities.
Tasting Notes
Vegetal and arboreal peat on the nose, which with fruit (ripe pear and apple, peach, apricot, white melon), cream meringue, vanilla cream and lemon curd amalgamates pine needles and roasted herbs, with damp shrubs thrown into the fire. Brushstrokes of liquorice root, hazelnut, Jaffa Cake with a spicy hint of black pepper and turmeric. Distinctive and graceful.
The palate has a nice body, with a literal oiliness, of herb-flavoured seed oil, with plenty of black pepper and a handful of cloves. Fruity and pastry notes intertwine with bitter ones of sea forest and burnt shrubs, imbued with a rather lively saline vein with evocations of liquorice and cinchona. There is some toasted resin and burnt shortbread along the length.
In the finish, the sweet fruit and pastry notes slide over a toasty, woody bed with spicy overtones and a saline streak.
How nice to experience such a graceful and integrated peatiness, which emphasises without presumptuous ambitions, accompanying a full-bodied and lively distillate with a pleasantness that won’t tire. It doesn’t astonish, it doesn’t overwhelm, it doesn’t overact: it’s just good.