Arran 18 Year

Nose - Right away sherry and charred american oak barrels jump out to me. Sweet fruits with roasted vanilla and caramel. There's a light note of either peat or salt, I don't know much about Arran but perhaps it's coastal or they use the ever so slightest amount of peat. Shoulda looked at the bottle, but it's an island so that makes perfect sense. Overall there's a more rustic and older more hearty malt nose but the lower abv at 46 is leaving me a bit flat at the end. Still very interesting nose that keeps me coming back. Taste - This takes me back to the charred american oak though instead of richer sweetness it's more soft oak tannins with some richness in that french vanilla toasted sugar range, but more focus on the toasted barrel flavor. Then we get sea salt and chocolate with little hints of fruits at most. There's a slightly bitter/metallic note that brings me back to a springbank type dram, a very nice complement. There's a touch of a waxy muted note. Overall a well made 18 year old whisky at a reasonable all be it a bit low proof. So the verdict? Will I buy another bottle? Nope. Would I be happy to get a free bottle? Yep. Will I happily finish this bottle? You're damn right. So 2.0 it's a pretty average whisky in today's world of quality drams. After some time open I'm upping to 2.5, that finish is still a step up.

10年のトロピカルさはやや抑えめ、柔らかい甘さになる。高年式のウイスキーとして比較すると、ほかの蒸留所に軍配。

Smoky taste

Arran is one of my favorite distilleries. Most of the different expressions I had were really awesome. I also really am digging the new design and the direction Arran is heading to with their own variations and experiments as well as with their sister distillery “Lagg” that is only producing peated whisky. (The Machrie Moor already was a really nice peated bottle.) So after I had the 12y I immediately got a bottle of the 18y and 21y each, which are more different that I was expecting. It has the very likable nose of Arran with a great fruitiness that is based in the sherry finish. There is dominantly dried apricots, some raisins but also a nice earthiness like wet clay. Then cranberries, black currant, banana peel, light vanilla. It also has some green tea qualities. And to top it all off: a great spice mix, which I realized is what generally makes a whisky great for me - a balance of sweetness and deep spices. When it hits the palate you immediately get nice oak soaked in dark red fruits / sherry. You can’t really tell if it is sweet or sour or even slightly bitter. It is right in the middle of these tastes and that balance makes me really like this whisky. There is dark berries conveyed in a woody syrupy texture, candied nuts (“gebrannte Mandeln” that are very popular in Germany) and then only in the end a spicy heat like cooked chilis. Later the nose become very chocolaty. But in the end it all finishes in a long and ongoing spicy fruitiness with great sherry oak. Man, what a good whisky and noticeably different to the 21y. This is a whisky you don’t wanna miss. It has many sides and a lot to discover. It also develops very nicely over the course of a dram, where it starts of fruity and sherry sweet with nice spices and near the bottom of the glas it becomes more deep, smooth and rich and loses a lot of the sweetness and becomes much more spicy almost savory. I also got this bottle on sale for only 70$ but I would pay more than this without any hesitation.