Fàilte air ais! It's been a week since my last post. Well. I have a bit more on my plate currently, so I don't have as much time to write articles as before. From now on I will try to publish 1-2 posts per week. Maybe I will also post more frequently on Instagram too, where I only posted if I published a new article here until now. We will see. I have lots of ideas for this page and for my Instagram too. Speaking of IG, if you haven't yet checked out my page please do so. Hit the Follow button and see my stories of my daily drams and many more things.

Today we will take a look at a bottle that I enjoy very much, the Arran Amarone Cask. I purchased a bottle of this already a year ago. Why did I get it again? Well. Two reasons really. One: the color of this year's batch is much much darker than the one I had last year and I was curious if it reflects in the taste too or not. Two: I really really enjoyed the previous bottle. Let's dive right into it.

The Lochranza Distillery

The Lochranza distillery is a whisky distillery in Lochranza, Scotland, Isle of Arran. In 1994 Arran Distillers was founded by Harold Currie, former director of Chivas and a D-Day veteran, with the intention of building a distillery on Arran. The distillery, funded by private investors and the sale of bonds, opened in 1995. There used to be about fifty distilleries on the island, but most of them were "moonlight" or illegal distilleries.

The most recent legally founded distillery on Arran, called ''Lagg'' closed in 1837. However the Isle Of Arran distillers Ltd. re-opened Lagg in 2019.

Until recently a proportion of the casks were stored in the warehouses of Springbank, due to a lack of room in the distillery, and the legal impossibility of extending the current warehouses at the Arran distillery. However, the distillery now has a storage warehouse, on site, that allows easier access to barrels. The distillery offers a cask purchase scheme which offers private individuals the opportunity to own their own cask of whisky, which can be stored on site at the distillery.

Although Arran is a very young distillery, there are many bottlings. The core range includes the Arran 10 Years, the Arran Quarter Cask - The Bothy, and the Arran Sherry Cask - The Bodega. On the occasion of Lochranza's 25th anniversary, the Arran 25 Years old was bottled.

In addition, there is a wide range of wine finishes including Sauternes, Amarone and Port. The peated variant of Arran, the former Machrie Moor, has been produced by Lagg under their name since 2019. In addition, Lochranza has also offered an Arran Cream Liqueur with 17% alcohol content since 2004.

Arran Amarone Cask Finish - Natural Color, Non-chill filtered, 50%

"Our Arran Amarone Wine Finish is the perfect partnership of rich, red wine and our iconic Arran Single Malt taste."

"We are delighted to present our range of wine cask finishes Single Malt in a brand new pack for 2020. The same delicious Single Malt with a new-look pack.

After initially maturing in traditional oak casks over a number of years, The Arran Single Malt in this bottling was 'finished' in a selection of Amarone wine casks. The wine casks used in this bottling were sourced from an artisan producer of Amarone wine in the Veneto region of Italy.

A luxurious Italian wine meets a complex and vibrant Scottish character - there is a lot to love and appreciate about this Single Malt and you will enjoy every dram."

What is an Amarone wine?

Amarone della Valpolicella, usually known as Amarone is an Italian DOCG denomination of typically rich dry red wine made from the partially dried grapes of the Corvina (45–95%, of which up to 50% could be substituted with Corvinone), Rondinella (5–30%) and other approved red grape varieties (up to 25%). 

This is a very ripe, raisiny, full-bodied wine with very little acid. Alcohol content easily surpasses 15% (the legal minimum is 14%) and the resulting wine is rarely released until five years after the vintage, even though this is not a legal requirement.

Nose: Completely different than the bottle I had last year. The Arran DNA is very noticeable as always, and this is really appreciated beacuse it means that the base spirit is not subdued. Fresh maltiness, freshly cut grass, sea breeze, toffee and vanilla. Juicy peaches and green apples along with grapes. It's much more fruity than the older bottle. Also I don't get that youthful or metallic note that was present in the last bottle. Great. Raisins, prunes and caramelized oranges. Milk chocolate and espresso. Juicy red grapes and wine gums. It is very bright and very fruity but also has darker red wine notes. Great nose.

Taste: Very sweet, round and smooth right away. The 50% ABV. is very well integrated, no alcohol present. This higher strength fits this whisky very well. Sea salt, maltiness and freshly cut grass. Then the fruitiness takes over. Red apples, juicy ripe pears and peaches from the orchard. Then we get lots of raisins, prunes and dates. Milk chocolate and espresso. A pepper rush and some ginger. Quite complex and layered. Very aromatic. Lovely taste.

Finish: Long and warming with just the right amount of spices and oak. Sweet and fruity. Complex and tasty. It goes down like a 46% whisky. You just can't feel that extra 4%, it's that well integrated. I like it a lot.

Overall I think this whisky is absolutely out of this world. It keeps the distillery DNA while having a huge influence from the cask. I think it's quite important for a whisky to keep the DNA even if it's finished in a very dominant cask such as any red wine casks. The distillery DNA plays very well with this whisky and together they create an extremely tasty and very complex experience. I rate this 89 / 100. If you can buy this and try it. You won't be disappointed.

Some pictures in this article are not owned by me, I tagged their owner and I attached a link of their site. All other pictures that have my logo on them are TAKEN AND OWNED BY ME.

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Check out the points on all the whiskies I've rated and ranked head-to-head over HERE.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. To many more. Sláinte.