Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength

Nicely balanced smoke with the sweetness, water smooths it out and brings out more smoke, citrus,

The nose is lemony vanilla. Banana. The peat is there as you approach the glass, but remains somewhat on the periphery. The palate brings the tropical fruits Arran seems to be known for. Banana, pineapple, coconut. Big vanilla sweetness - must be all ex-bourbon casks. Peat is more prominent on the palate than the nose. I’m not getting any of the medicinal notes as in Islay peat, but it’s more smoky and salty/briny. The finish is fairly short for a peated dram, but does show some oak and spice, lingering vanilla smokiness. I quite enjoy this, but wish it had been an entire bottle. Unfortunately, it arrived from Fine Drams with a leak of about 20% of the bottle, and also unfortunately, Fine Drams apparently has no customer support. They haven’t responded to emails or social media messages, even though I can see that they’ve read the messages. For a moderately peated whiskey, it’s an easy drinker. It’s fine neat, but I think does better with a little water. It’s not complex - it seems like it’s missing a savory element to balance the sweet and peat. But overall I’d say it’s a winner (of course, I think white dog from Arran would probably be a winner). Credit to Finedrams, as they did end up sending a replacement bottle, which arrived safely. Also, additional tastings have me bumping this up a quarter point. Clean fruity peat and it's just an easy drinker.

Tasting In Den Bockhamer. Burnin!