Arran 10 years, 46% abv.

Before all the hoopla with Ardnahoe, Arran was THAT new distillery. The Lochranza distillery was the first "legal" distillery on the Isle of Arran and the Lagg distillery is slated for operations in 2019. Arran ran their first spirit in 1995 and released several NAS and IBs over the years. More than 2 decades later, Arran has now released a more consistent core lineup. The funny thing is the 10 year old should be considered the entry level dram, but it seems like the 18 year has taken that place amongst drinkers and is considered the flagship bottle.

Nose: perfume, light fruit, young green grapes, pears, mostly sour wood, light cinnamon, some chocolate, dried cherries. With time its a strong toast, grains, vanilla bouquet, hints of green grapes condensed dried cherries.

Palate: initial palate is light honey, mid palate has some honey with spice, the sweet vanilla flavors build up and has hints of fresh green grapes and bacon?! back palate has vanilla, honey. Overall quite sweet, background of bacon.

Finish: short, light fruity wood, generally sweet, nothing too much.

Dry glass: waxy.

This one is quite nice and has changed my opinion on Arran. I admit previous IB offerings weren't that impressive. Even though it's only at 46% abv, it has great flavor concentrations in the vanilla and toast areas and the nose is quite enjoyable, showcasing a small spectrum of sweetness. The interesting thing is I felt a bacon (or salty) flavor throughout the palate that didn't transfer well into the finish. I'm impressed. Had this at Black Bar (formerly Mark T), Seoul, South Korea.

Grade: C+

Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.54 ± 0.27 on 23 reviews
Whiskyfun.com, Serge, sgp:541, 85 points
Malt maniacs, 85 points on 1 review for 2010
Whiskyphile, Barry Bradford, 84/100 for 2015
Whisky advocate, Gavin Smith, 87 points
Whiskynotes, Ruben Luyten, 83/100
Thewhiskeyjug, Josh Peters, B for 2015
Ralfy, 89/100
LA whiskey society, C+ on 2 reviews
2018 IWSC, Gold Medal

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

🇭🇰 🇺🇸(LA, SF) -> 🇯🇵 (京都, 東京) -> 🇰🇷 (서울, 부산)