Category Archives: Arran

An everyday dram, Arran

The Arran Malt 10yr – a young beauty not to be overlooked

Islands region – 46%ABV – $40-45 | £28 | €33

Hidden jems, most of the time are not really hidden.  Oftentimes they simply go undetected; even in plain sight.

At 15 years of age, The Arran Malt Distillery is one of the newer kids on the block.  So, you may not heave heard of them just yet.

There’s nothing over-the-top or super eye-catching about their standard packaging (though, I think the bottles have a bit of a regal look to them).  So, you may have overlooked them in the single malt section of your local spirits shop.

I’m going to dedicate the next couple of weeks to The Arran Malt Distillery and their whiskies.  I feel as if I’ve stumbled upon a bit of a hidden gem here and I want to share my findings with you.

Let’s start with their entry level dram – the 10 year old:

On the nose — Aggressive young nose with an initial sea element to it.

Something a bit smokey too (this is not peated but there are mere hints of a beach bonfire).

Getting beyond this and you’ll find obvious notes of crystalized ginger and red delicious apples (or perhaps, delicious red apples).

Hot cinnamon.

Malt, lots of it.

On the mouth — Nice mouth feel, even steven.

Caramels and almond nougats.

Hot apple cider.

More of the ginger I detected on the nose but not as upfront on the palate.

Wet paper bags filled with white berries (perhaps gooseberry).

Finish — Longy McLongerson, refreshing and sweet.

In sum — The balance is fantastic.  It’s not everyday you find an everyday dram but, damn, I done found one!  Complex, a bit challenging, immensely enjoyable and easily drunk (the fluid, not me).

Arran, Kosher Spirits (not for Passover), Let's celebrate!, Loch Chaim, Springtime, Summertime, Whiskies

Loch Chaim Arran, Single Cask, 13yr old – the Bar/Bat Mitzvah dram

Islands region – 43%ABV – $84

Being that the Jewish New Year began last night (L’Shanah Tovah to all of my Jewish readers — health and happiness to all of my readers), I figured I’d begin a new limited series focusing on kosher certified whiskies.

Loch Chaim whiskies are Single Malt, Single Cask whiskies (not cask strength, all taken down to 43% ABV) specifically bottled for kosher keeping Jews (but happen to be completely delicious for anyone who loves good whisky).

Being single cask, you can imagine that the availability of these whiskies is limited.  You can find this line throughout New York, New Jersey and in pockets of Washington DC & Los Angeles.  You know, the Little Israels of the US. 🙂

All of these single cask expressions are matured in ex-bourbon (or, at least non-wine influenced) barrels.

I’ve got five different Loch Chaim whiskies and I thought it’d be good to start with the 13 year old Isle of Arran:

On the nose – Big bourbon fresh nose!

Salted green tomatoes.

Browning lemons (perhaps the largest component here) and pear notes.

Rhubarb preserves.

Light and inviting.

Not the most complex nose but…nice.

Something slightly earthy about this nose too…

On the mouth – Very peppery.

Barbecue sauce and sweet ketchup (where in the blue F did this come from!?).

Fruit jams comprised of slightly more bitter fruits.

Cinnamon, nutmeg and a bit of cardamom.

Finish – The pepperiness continues.

There’s a decent length here.

In sum – So while I was trying to figure this one out (what with the strangeness from the bourbon light fresh nose to the family barbecue pallet), I realized what’s happening here.  This is, after all, a 13yr old whisky AND a kosher whisky.

What happens to Jewish boys & girls at age 13??  You guessed it, the become a Bar or Bat Mitzvah.  This whisky became an adult!  It became a Bar Mitzvah in my mouth.  Hmmm, that doesn’t sound right…

Arran

How the good folks at The Isle of Arran Malt launched their new 14 Year Old Whisky…

How to launch The Arran Malt 14 Years Old (both historically and, in style!):

1. Duty pay a 25 litre cask and remove it from the warehouse of the Isle of Arran Distillery

2. Transport the cask by boat from Lochranza to Glasgow (on rough seas of course!)

3. Transport the cask by horse & cart to several famous Glasgow whisky pubs

4. Open the cask in the Oran Mor Whisky Bar at 6.30pm after being piped round the bar

5. Serve free drams to 200 thirsty fans of The Arran Malt

6. Pick up an empty cask the next morning……late the next morning!

Click here see some great film footage of this historic event.

All You Need Is Love, Arran, Autumn, Cold Winter, Master of Malt, Need To Bundle Up, Springtime

Master of Malt – Drinks by the Drams plus one review – The Master of Malt 12yr Arran Single Cask

Master of Malt

In case you are not familiar, Master of Malt is a spirits shop based in East Sussex, UK.  “MoM” (as may people lovingly refer to them as) specializes in the sales of malt whisky (be it Scotch, Irish, American, Japanese, Swedish, Australian and Kiwi, Welsh, Indian or Canadian) – they do it all.  They’re also getting into other fine spirits such as Rums, Gin, Vodka, etc…

These men and women are true Masters!

Something new for Master of Malt, and the wide world of whisky sales in general, is their innovation of selling 3cl sized samples of many of their whiskies!  They now offer, not just for the distillery owned bottles, but samples of their exclusive bottlings as well.  Very smart on their part if’n you ask me.  The program is called “Drinks by the Dram” and they have many whisky expression available for you to try (for a small fee) before you buy the full bottle.  Click here to check out their offering.

I got my hands on some of their samples (mainly of their exclusive expressions) and… do these samples look cool or what?  Even my wife thought they were “cute”.

Being that I have about 10 or 12 of these samples sitting at home, I thought that I should start opening, tasting and reviewing these cuties.  So I will get them into my regular rotation and see if I can review a new Master of Malt expression every Tuesday (for the next 10-12 weeks).

Just a note here: when I refer to the “Master of Malt expressions”, I want you to know that these are not simply whisky blends that they concoct.  No, these (or, at least many of them) are single cask, cask strength whiskies.  So when they come out with a new bottle, chances are there’s 200-400 bottles per chosen cask, and once those bottles are gone, you’ll never see them again.  These MoM bottlings are truly unique.

Here is a review of their 26yr Bowmore I did a short while back – amazing stuff!

With regards to the samples in question, and in the “spirit” of full disclosure, I will tell you that these 3cl sweeties were gifted to me by Master of Malt for analytical and reviewing purposes.  My guess is that most of these whiskies are going to be quite nice but, if I find one I don’t care for, I will say so (heck, just look at the first Bruichladdich review I did).  These are unbiased and independent reviews.

Master of Malt Arran 12yr

Without further ado, I now begin my weekly review of the Master of Malt exclusive bottlings (or the samples thereof):

Islands region – Master of Malt Exclusive Single Cask Arran 12yr – 54.7%ABV –  700ml bottle – £45 (as stated above, you can also get a 3cl sample of this one)

On the nose — Big nose, soapy (not like Bowmore but soapy still, castile?), apples, sandalwood and ocean breeze, tamarind juice and a touch of smoke (my imagination?)


On the mouth — Big chewy caramels!  A touch of chocolate (milk), orange, fantastic.

Can’t get past the caramels; I don’t want to actually (this reminds me as to why I seek out the caramel squares in a box of chocolates).

Finish — Decent length, the milky caramel goodness remains, you’d never know this is a cask strength Arran, warming but not burning in any way.

In sum –– The palate and finish are delectably delicious, the balance is slightly off (from the nose to the palate/finish) but the palate and finish by themselves make up for it in ways you would not believe!

This would be a nice springtime whisky but could also warm you up in the Autumn and winter seasons.