ISLE OF ARRAN 1996 18YO - CÀRN MÒR CELEBRATION OF THE CASK

The last review in this series of Arrans is the bottling that actually inspired me to have a look at Arran again.

There's now quite a few bottlings available in their teens and looking at the reviews they've been getting (other than my own) they're great whiskies.

But back to the Càrn Mòr Arran... As mentioned in the review of my 'reference Arran, the 14' I attended the Càrn Mòr tasting with Peter Mackay at the Spirit of Speyside Spring Festival earlier this year... some good whiskies were had for sure, but one blew me away - the 18yo Arran from their 'Celebration of the Cask'-series.

Isle of Arran 1996 18yo (18.12.1996/30.03.2015) 52,6%, sherry puncheon#2135, 560 bottles, Cárn Mór - Celebration of The Cask

Colour is amber

Nose:
A gentle attack of stewed fruits (apple), mellow malt and honey.
There's also a nice creamy/waxy feel to the nose accompanied by hint of sweet tobacco leaves, cocoa and ozone. Everything here comes in perfect measures and in perfect balance - love this!

Taste:
Again the arrival is very gentle. It starts very creamy sweet with the sherry making its entrance. Then wow, what a surprising mid-palate - it goes into tropical fruit overdrive, kiwi, mango, pineapple but still manages never to go over the top with its sweetness or on fruit as there's always just that little oak to keep everything in place. The finish heads in direction of milk chocolate, tea and honey, but has some nutmeg notes as well. The sherry makes a short appearance at the end rounding everything off beautifully!

This is one of the best whiskies I've had so far in 2015!

92/100!

THE ARRAN MALT 2001 13YO - DISTILLERY BOTTLING FOR GLASGOW WHISKY CLUB

We're almost at the end of this Arran Verticale, but this a couple of more to go - this one included.

As a member and Chairman of a Whisky Club myself, its always fun to try bottling done for other clubs/societies. This one I was looking particularly forward to as I through acquaintances with some of the guys in gWc had heard many good things about it... But we all know how tastes can vary - so would this also fit a Danish palate?

The Arran Malt 2001 13yo (28.05.2001/06.01.2014) 54,7%, sherry hogshead#2001/098, Distillery bottling for Glasgow Whisky Club

Colour is mahogany

Nose:

A deep almost syrupy nose, raisin, prunes, truffle, chocolate and overripe oranges - absolutely fantastic!

Taste:

Sun dried grapes, very PX (is this a PX sherry-cask?) blackberry, prunes, nutmeg, dark cherries. There's an underlying herbal note and some licorice in there as well. The finish hangs on for quite a while, but there is a slight dirty pop-up of something there which prevents this one from hitting the 90-mark.

89/100! it's fantastic whisky! Good job, Lads!

THE ARRAN MALT 1999 15YO - DISTILLERY EXCLUSIVE

Next up is another Arran Distillery Exclusive, but this time from an ex-bourbon cask, probably from a barrel when you look at the relatively low bottle output.

I also tried this at the distillery in May this year and quite liked it so I was looked forward to trying it again at the Arran Verticale.

The Arran Malt 1999 15yo (19.07.1999/13.02.2015) 53,5%, ex-bourbon cask#130, 164 bottles, Distillery Exclusive

Colour is pale gold

Nose:
Ohh nice... Fresh cut apple, some lemon, ginger and vanilla shortbread, truckloads of malt heading in direction of breakfast bran cereal and some mineral notes as in clay/wet sand, gravel - very 'highland' in fact.

Taste:
Vanilla, grapeskins, a little honey, love fruits notes of melon, citrus, kiwi and apple. The mouth feel is quite creamy at 53,5% - the oily feel of Arran showing itself beautifully here. The finish heads towards more spices, pepper, ginger, caraway seeds, but its never invasive in any way... 

Love this! A very 'naked' Arran and I think its incredibly delicious!

90/100!

THE ARRAN MALT 1997 17YO - DISTILLERY EXCLUSIVE

Now straight on to the next Arran, this time a Distillery Exclusive bottling.

This I first tried at the distillery in May this year and I was taken with it right away and knew a couple of bottles of this had to follow me to Denmark.

One ended up on the Arran Verticale - here's my take on it:

The Arran Malt 1997 (10.02.1997/05.11.2014) 57,1% sherry cask#169, 189 bottles, Distillery Exclusive

Colour is light amber

Nose:

Certainly lighter than the previous expression(read: less sherried).

This is far from bad though, as it present itself beautifully with thick mentholated malt, brown sugar, milk chocolate/cappuccino and whiffs of Madeira wine. After a while some hints of cinnamon and overripe apple comes through.

Taste:

I normally find the Arran malt very oily, but this is a bit different. Some of the oily mouth feel is still there, yes, but its lighter and more lively than usual. Again overripe apple is a big theme here (love that note!) but there's also some light ginger and a little aniseed in here.

On the finish, a big rush of malt sweetness comes through along with a little nutmeg and a burst of menthol and peppery oak... Quite a fun finish and 'cool' finish and it works - for me at least :-)

Another gr8 Arran malt!

89/100!

THE ARRAN MALT 1998 16YO - DISTILLERY BOTTLING FOR DENMARK

Just like shops have bottlings done for them - like then one I mentioned in my previous review, bottlings are also done as country exclusives.

One such is the 1998 16yo bottled for Denmark. It doesn't have a fancy name like the last one, but it is a lovely sherried edition, actually quite noticeably more than the the one in the previous review.

Heavy sherry doesn't make a whisky though, it also needs good spirit - so let's check this one out...

The Arran Malt 1998 16yo (17.08.1998/20.10.2014) 55,3% sherry hogshead#1998/1129, 260 bottles, Distillery bottling for Denmark

Colour is dark amber

Nose:
Lots of dried fruits, sultana raisins, figs and also hint of orange/apricot. It also releases some peppery spices, enhanced a bit by the alcohol. Leaving it for a bit lets the sherry really pop out accompanied by a very enjoyable maltiness.

Taste:
Quite a pungent sherry presence but never over the top - it lets the malt shine along with some orange chocolate, dark honey and cocoa dust and hint of marzipan. Some dark sweet cherry appears on an almost perfect balanced finish had a drying spicyness not show its face on the finish, but is really just me trying to find trying to find something to put a finger on.

This was also voted the winner of flight no. 1 consisting of the first 4 bottles from the left in the above picture.
This is great stuff! 

89/100!

THE ARRAN MALT 2000 15YO - DISTILLERY BOTTLING FOR WHISKYBASE.COM

Whiskybase.com has a nice habit of once in a while releasing bottles exclusively bottled for their website/shop. One of the more recent was a 15yo Arran bottled in April this year - and one that fit perfectly into my lineup the verticale.

The bottling was named 'My Precious' by the guys at Whiskybase.
The reason for that was that there was already to other private cask bottlings out there (not by whiskybase, though) with references to names from The Lord of the Rings. Those bottlings were The Dark Lord and The White Wizard and the guys at Whiskybase thought it would be very appropriate with a follow-up to that... and if you like a whisky very much, why not call it ... 'My Precious' :-)

Another fun fact not normally disclosed about this bottling is that its actually a re-racking, meaning it has spent the first years of its life in one cask before being transferred to another. This one was re-racked in 2004 from a cask of unknown origin and then spent the remaining years in its sherry hogshead.

Anyway, here's my take on 'My Precious':

The Arran Malt 2000 15yo (24.02.2000/02.04.2015) 56,9%, Sherry hogshead#2000/135, 220 bottles, Distillery for Whiskybase.com

Colour is Amber

Nose:
Liquid caramel (Dooleys), brown sugar apple saute, cinnamon sticks, honey and choco müsli bars. Also a slight mentholated (cold) feeling is given off of the nose along with hints of orange and a few mashy notes. Lovely!

Taste:
Very mouth coating, creme brulee burnt sugar, vanilla, apple again and lots of oils and malt. Again we also have cinnamon, fresh raisins, a slight floral hint, mixed bag candies fruits - the supermarket snack bag, some faded gingery notes and a little pepper

This is good stuff, no doubt! Unfortunately its sold out...

87/100!