The Arran Malt Aged 10 Years Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 700ml

Product Information

The unmalted and malted barley combination really shows through with this whiskey with a much more creamy ’roundness’ that’s extremely soft and pleasant. It’s bottled at 46% as well and made up of whisky from a batch of 10 second fill sherry butts, producing about 6000 bottles of which 600 are allocated for sale in the UK. Milani Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (Naked Wine, Italy): My first out of the box and grabbed to match a spaghetti bolognese. A nice first box, full of slightly more interesting drams than you’ll often find in a regular region sampling whisky flight. To taste it had caramel with sweet vanilla, dark chocolate, just unripe vine fruits and a hint of pepper.

Arran is an island that I visited a few times as a child – popping over on the ferry (and on The Waverley at least once) when up in Scotland visiting people in Ayr. Their stills are quite squat, with long, thin, tall necks stretching up 3-4m to a right angled lyne arm, giving a light and fruity spirit.The driver will input your year of birth into their device and may then require an ID check to complete the age verification process.

So, whether you’re a full-on peat monster or prefer your whisky sweeter, we’ve found the dram for you. Water opens it up a bit with sweet honey, big tannic winey wood, a hint of chocolate and a spicy finish. The presentation is as appealing as its taste, and the fact that it’s non-chiller filtered makes it unique and complex.There’s ginger, black pepper and star anise, as well as background notes of caramel and toffee, a dried orange finish and some mellow smoke. In addition to the single malts they also do a cream liqueur, Arran Gold, and a pair of blends, Robert Burns and Lochranza, the latter of which has been on my ‘to try’ list for a bit.

Eddie might have a couple of bottles of that, although I suspect they’re for personal consumption, but The Whisky Exchange have a few which they are more likely to sell you. I will hopefully have a copy of Dominic’s book appearing early next year as a thankyou for signing up for the regular sets and there are tales of bonus drams making their way out as well – I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. It could take quite a bit of water, softening the flavours into black forest gateau, although the bitter liquorice remains at the end. It’s from a batch of 1999 distilled spirit, matured in oloroso casks for 8-9 years and then finished for 2 years in Amontillado casks, my favourite kind of sherry. Sweet and woody tones from the second fill bourbon casks follow the spice and there is a very very light hint of smoke (and I mean very).The 10 year old bottling is the distillery’s flagship offering and was their first aged released back in 2006 (although it was subject to a new recipe in 2019). Howcroft Estate Limestone Coast Merlot 2006 (Tesco, Australia): Grabbed from my step-dad’s wine rack due to the word ‘turkey’ being in the ‘goes with’ list on the back, this was a nice light Merlot, full enough to battle with the dark turkey meat as well as not being too strong as to drown out the (admittedly dry) white meat. There was definitely a hint of all of the different finishes in there, but I’m not sure that it all worked together at bottle strength, only 40% though it was. In the event of any safety concerns or for any other information about a product please carefully read any instructions provided on the label or packaging and contact the manufacturer. Perfect as an apéritif, served with light fish or mild Asian dishes (such as spring rolls), or mixed with ginger ale/beer and a squeeze of lime over ice.