Arran: A Tasting of Two Dogs

It's hard to believe that Arran Distillery has only been around since 1995. The quality of the produce and the amount of flavours that is in every expression is one hell of a feat. We first encountered Arran back in our Oddbins days when the Arran Founder's Reserve was released to the general public - it was very unbalanced with the youthful fruits fighting to climb above the alcohol and often failing. That's always been the trouble with building a distillery from scratch, there is no mature stock to trade on. You just have to hold the ship steady until you can get to an age that shows the world exactly what you can do.

Arran is about to become 16, and the boys and girls at the distillery have been busy creating a fantastic range of expressions that we knew we had to get into 121. Here are our thoughts on some of the more harder to get bottles.........but in stock at Inverarity121....hahaha

Arran Amarone Cask, 50%abv: This was one that we were not going to stock until we tried it. The colour is more like a rose wine than whisky but that's part of the joy when they don't add any colouring, natural and honest. I thought it was a super soft, attractive malt that was enriched by a red berry fruit and a milk chocolate-a-like finish that made it even more moreish than i would've thought possible. Smiley Pete thought it was so nice and tasty and so rich that it was one of the smoothest malts on the market and he loved the attractive blush from the amarone cask.

And now to the two dogs........

Machrie Moor, 46%abv: Apparently when they were putting the packaging together for the Machrie Moor the printer tried to change the name of the dog on the tin to Brian instead of Bran! I doubt the giant Fingal would've had a dog called Brian! But now, the whisky - a summer dram, lightly peated, 14ppm and the first summer drinking peat whisky I've tried. This was Pete's favourite from the tasting...which is a shame considering there are no more bottles at the distillery and we only have a few left ourselves.

Icons of Arran No. 3 "The Westie", 46abv: ahhhhhhhh it's so cute - love the bottle, wish we had it in stock for mothers day. Put together by James MacTaggart from 22 Ex-Oloroso sherry casks. This is one of those whiskies you wouldn't even have to drink, you could just nose it! Luckily, we're professionals and we also drank it. For you. As research. On the nose it was intensely fruity with tropical notes, and a punnet of pears. Intensely addictive. On the palate, it was drier than you'd expect from an Arran with green herbs (thyme), a lovely balance and a gorgeous long finish. Embrace the westie...we'll take the hair of the dog anyday! We love it and we'll hopefully see you at the Arran Open Day, Sunday 29th May. Please visit http://www.arranwhisky.com/ for detatils