Tastes

Dried fruits, licorice, and floral spices come through a remarkably oily and thick dram. The nose is the sweet scent of a mountain blackberry patch; green, ripe, overripe, and fresh. The finish is long, sweet, and full of savory cherries.

Sweet macaroons: the nutty almond flour provides a good complement to dried apples and a healthy spoonful of honey.

Subtle cigar smoke, carmelized tropical fruit, quite spirited, long finish of sweet maple syrup covered ham.

Perhaps the most complex of the three, with rum casks, Quarter casks, and virgin oak casks all playing for attention. The nose is salty with hints of the sandy sea shore, sandalwood, and lavender. The palate has a bit of the salt, but is much sweeter with floral candies dominating. They compliment (or maybe clash with) prominent mineral notes. The finish is not as long as the other volumes, but there is a nice floral vanilla.

My favorite in the series and proof that Arran can do wonderful things with peat. The nose is full of stewed stone fruits, clean cotton, and old dry hardwood. The palate is defined by its spiciness, white and black pepper hit you right away. Hiding further back is creamy oak and ripe berries. The finish is long and lingering with a fruity jam enriched with spicy chili pepper.

I wanted to love this, I really did. Green Spot was the first whiskey I ever had that made me go, “damn, that’s good.” So, I set out on a search to find Yellow Spot believing it would lead me even closer to whiskey enlightenment. When I finally got the chance to try a dram I was disgusted. It was sweet and syrupy in an altogether unpleasant fashion for my tastes. Whereas Green Spot seemed varied, Yellow Spot seemed to only hit one note and hit it hard. Now my tastes have definitely shifted from the first taste of Green Spot, so maybe if I had had Yellow all those years ago it would have made a better impression.

I’ve heard it compared to a baby Ardbeg Uigeadail and I’d say that’s about right. At half the price, it’s half the strength and half the flavor. Not sure that’s a worthwhile trade off, but it won’t be bad for a daily sipper. The peated barely they use comes from Balvenie and they began distilling it in 2003 when Balvenie began its peat week experiments (think of it as a collaboration I guess). This dram definitely has some of that 15 year old peated scotch, but it’s been cut with a bunch of younger cheaper material. It’s a pretty good value for what it is; the rum finish adds some great astringent burnt brown sugar, but I wish the peat smoke was stronger. A higher abv version would have been a treat, though even as is, it’s probably my favorite ‘fiddich so far.