Arran 1996 17 Year Old Bourbon Cask #538

Arran Amarone Cask Finish

First vapor: Pumpernickel date bread. Nose: Rubber at first: rubbery cocoa, rubbery walnut oil. A faint sense of a next-day glass of merlot (which can share that rubberiness), and perhaps liquorice root. Otherwise quite light at first. Warming in the hand brings stewed raspberry to this rubbery mix. Palate: Entrance of salty caramel, rubber and...

Score 73/100

Arran KWM Sherry Single Cask 481

This one is the sherry single cask, and the Kensington Wine Market single cask bottling. Sherry nose. Did I mention the sherry? Spicy and hot first taste. Some very bright acidic flavour and a toasty maltiness.

Score 78/100

Arran 10 Year Old

Nose: Rich, sweet, succulent grape. The most clear, intense grape aroma I've ever experienced in a whisky. Close on its heels, a huge wave of black licorice. Marvelous. Taste: Sweet, sappy, with thick licorice-flavoured malt. Very fruity again, with grape and cherry, but more bitter oak to balance. Also a slight salty note. Tastes a little...

Score 93/100

Arran 13 Year Old 1996 Private Cask

Erik and Walter D'hoogh opened their famous restaurant D'hoogh in the heart of historic Mechelen in Belgium. For 23 long years they held a Michelin star. In the middle of the 1990s their restaurant was also the location of the first ever Arran tasting outside the UK, hosted by Gordon Mitchell, the then-managing director of the distillery. You...

Score 85/100