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

Product Information

Locranza is a village on Arran, an oval-shaped island on the west coast of Scotland, located west of Glasgow, just east of Mull of Kintyre. Along with the regular bottling and this 18 year old Extra Black they also used to do an Extra Rare, which I have a cloth bag covered bottle of in my whisky cupboard. Bottled at 46% this is the latest regular bottling to be released from the distillery – as they were founded in 1996 it’s obvious to see why it hasn’t appeared before. Look for menthol, new wood notes on the nose, and a touch of wheat and dried fruit to sip, alongside a little oaky vanilla.

We’ve divided them up into different sections of Scotch, Peated/Smoky, Irish and Blends, depending on which type you prefer and provided some pricing info. A classic highland distillery, just down the road from Glenmorangie, Dalmore’s been in the news recently with the release of their newest whisky – The Trinitas.It was rather lively, needing several glasses to pour out into without overflowing with meringue-like head, and in true bottle conditioned fashion was quite sedimenty at the bottom, requiring some care in the pouring. The St Magnus comes in at 55% ABV and on the nose had punchy sherry fruit, mulchy peat, almonds and marzipan, and a hint of farmyard mixed in with a meatiness that spread from the nose down to the back of the mouth. Being so young a distillery it’s quite difficult to have a wide range of whiskies at traditional ages.

Please always read the labels, warnings, and directions provided with the product before using or consuming a product. I quite like Montepulciano and this was slightly disappointing – quite rough, although it did soften as it aired, without as much fruit as I hoped.On the nose it was sweet and lightly smokey, with a thin and nicely astringent smoke rather than a choking cloud. Although obviously smoky, the effect isn’t as dominant as it is with other whiskies, which allows some lighter notes of sweet lemon to come through with a freshness that makes us think of a stroll along Islay’s wild, sandy beaches. This will lead to the standard range of whiskies being the 10 and 14 year olds as well as the three cask finishes mentioned above.

I didn’t add water to it, and I wish I had – it was a bit of a muddle and I think it might have helped bring the various flavours out a bit. Whisky Gandalf Darren, the man behind Whisky4Movember and random chap for Master of Malt, had done some looking around and brought us four moustache related whiskies to try.

Matured for 22 years in american oak before being recasked for 6 months to finish in 30 year old Gonzalez Byass Matusalem Oloroso sherry butts, this is part of Dalmore’s increasingly silly range of premium whiskies, although very much at the lower end. There was a surprising amount to the whisky, especially for an 8 year old, but it was maybe a little bit woody on the taste for my liking.