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

Product Information

This whisky NEEDS to breathe (probably due to its young age, high abv and traditional unfiltered bottling) - Despite being initially quite sharp and clean, It's began to show character having been open a while - maybe it's just me getting 'into it' but it seems that with a few weeks breathing (and a dash of water), this scotch develops a sort of rich 'cluster' of warm, dry flavours - hints of caramel, coconut milk and red apple. Richard Paterson is definitely someone to see do his act in person, with over the top hand waving about ‘the pussies’ who don’t know what they’re missing, throwing whisky on the floor and audience, and the occasional party popper, although outside of that he is just a nice guy to have a chat with. Being so young a distillery it’s quite difficult to have a wide range of whiskies at traditional ages. 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.

Created from a combination of single malts all aged over 8 years and vatted in a 1200 litre charred European oak barrel (which is depicted on the label). Even as we navigate this post-pandemic world it seems the whisky industry and its boom has remained intact.Amid closures and overproduction, you’d think the last thing any investor would do would be to open a new whisky distillery in Scotland, never mind opening one on the Isle of Arran.

Along with my visits to the SMWS to try weird single cask bottlings and my attendance of The Whisky Exchange and Whisky Squad tastings I was rather pleased to see that Dominic Roskrow‘s whisky tasting club had branched out from Norwich to the online world and fired up TheWhiskyTastingClub. A must have in any collection, the Arran 10 Year Old is an elegant expression that perfectly encapsulates the character of the island. The larger release of the St Magnus suggests that it won’t reach the heady heights of the first bottle, but will be a key part of sets of all three bottles in the future, so grabbing one now if you have the Earl Magnus is a no-brainer. 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. Our fifth whisky of the night, breaking the rule (as seems to have happen at most Whisky Squads) that we only taste four whiskies, was Smokehead Extra Black.With over two thousand items in our catalogue, including over 2000 single malts, we continue to be recognised as one of the market leaders in terms of our ability to acquire exceptional rare and vintage malts. You could even come to visit your whisky during the long, slow years it spends ageing to perfection. In a few more years they will have an 18 to round out the age selection, but from there who knows what they might do. I used Glenfiddich instead of brandy to ignite the Christmas pud – the fact that I consider Glenfiddich to be cooking whisky when not too long ago it was one of the best whiskies that you could expect someone to have on their shelf has been commented on.