.the arran - 18yo - first release

Starting with the first official 16yo two years ago, followed by the 17yo last year, now the Arran have released their first official 18yo. As with her predecessors, she has matured in a selection of ex-Sherry casks and is bottles in a limited release of only 9000 bottles. Unlike the previous two, the plans for the 18yo are to remain in the core range, albeit in a (most likely) different cask composition. Rumour has it that there are plans for a similar 21yo in three years time...

46% abv, €85, single malt, non-chill filtered, natural colour

Nose: sweet, red fruit, dried fruit, spices, cinnamon, honey, ripe red fruit, apples, cherries berries sweet, pear, peach

Palate: sweet, fruity, pear, peach, pomegranate, stone-fruit, citrus, blood orange, pineapple, mango

Finish: sweet, marshmallows, medium long, chocolate, marzipan
Mark: +++++

Conclusion: I am glad we got hold of a bottle before they were sold out. She is clearly a Sherried whisky, but not overly so, which is nice. We have kept the 16yo and 17yo so we could do a vertical tasting at some point, and we might do so real soon. We also might wait for the 21yo to be released and see what that does...

.thanks to the Whisky Wire and the Arran Malt for shipping us the samples for the twitter tasting