Hi everyone,
Got a couple of Arran’s I tasted recently in Switzerland for your reading pleasure today.
To be perfectly honest I’ve never really rated Arran in the same league as a lot of the other Island/Islay distilleries but perhaps because I haven’t tried lots of them. Really I need to get on the indies, but for the moment I’ve got these.
Arran 18 46%
Colour: Gold
Body: Medium
Nose: Lovely. Great style with spices and dry oak, raspberry, strawberry and cream, salted caramel and nettle.
Taste: Soft arrival, builds up, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, shortbread, oak, ginger and coriander.
Finish: Medium length. Some chocolate and milky coffee. Nice.
For when you don't want a sherry or peat bomb.
79/100
Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength 58.1%
Colour: Light Gold
Body: Medium/Full
Nose: Fruity style, fresh fruit, lime peel, green grape, sooty and ashy. Salted caramel and honeycomb.
Taste: Powar! Spicy kick, glowing ash and soot, then the fresh fruit with green grape, some apple and lime peel.
Finish: Medium length. Sooty again, ash has cooled, mellowed.
Really powerful and spicy on the mid-palate. Again, quality is definitely there but doesn’t really have the substance of Islay or Mull.
77/100
And this next one is what I was talking about in my latest Tomatin review. Another 35cl Sherry finish with a 35cl of the Sherry they used. Cool idea, but Arran have done it better. Way better.
Arran 2001 PX Finish 52.4%
Colour: Amber
Body: Medium/Full
Nose: That’s better! Amazing cherry from the off, vanilla and real aged PX (had a 20yo the other day that this reminds me of), stewed dark raisin, oily tobacco.
Taste: Great. Arrives soft, then spice and sherry kicks in, PX, thick raisin, dark chocolate, vanilla pod. Dense sweetness, nice balance. Really works.
Finish: Medium/Long length. Vanilla and soft PX. Lovely.
Fantastic stuff. A great example of a good PX finish. Unfortunately I think this is a private cask and may not be available.
84/100
Thanks for reading!
Scotch Reviews #507-#509
Whisky Network Reviews #587-#589
Network Average: 74.6
Best Score: 92
Worst Score: 22
0-49 Terrible
50-59 Bad
60-64 Just About OK
65-69 Ok to Good
70-74 Good
75-79 Very Good
80-84 Excellent
85-89 Superb
90+ Magnificent
Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment