Being on Arran with a couple days on my hand it would have been criminal only to visit the Lagg distillery, missing Lochranza distillery home of Arran whisky. Instead of the tour, I opted for the Lochranza select tasting. Lochranza is one of Scotland’s most visited, if not the most visited distillery, with an estimated 100,000 visitors annually. I must admit I was looking for a more “intimate”. I also wanted to test some of Arran’s new special releases which are regularly released besides the extremely successful standard lineup, centred on the award-winning Arran 10. The Select tasting offers the opportunity to try 5 limited editions and/or distillery exclusives. That is exactly what I was hoping for.
The Lochranza select tasting
The tasting itself takes place in the dramming room, a cosy and intimate bar-like room full of Arran whisky goodies. Lochranza’s head tour guide, Pam, carried out the tasting. She did a fantastic job of keeping an audience of varying levels of whisky knowledge engaged and entertained. The whiskies offered at the tasting change regularly from what is available at the bar (pic below). Although not explicitly stated in the booking, I found online that the tasting includes 4-5 drams. We ended up sampling 6, as Pam snuck a cheeky one extra in the tasting.
Below are my notes, from the Lochranza tasting, with a few caveats. All the notes below are from sample pours, which I could take home as driver drams. That provided me with more time to compare and contrast them. Nonetheless, these notes should not be taken as a full review.
Remnant Renegade – Signature Series Edition 1 46%
According to the Arran website, this signature edition is:
“Ex-Sherry Hogsheads, Ex-Sherry Butts and Ex-Bourbon Barrels from across the Arran portfolio between as early as only a couple of years after we started distilling to as recently as 2017.”
I would imagine there is a bulk of younger 6-10 year-old whisky in this one, with some added older casks, up to over 20 years old.
It is like tasting the grown-up brother of the Arran 10-year-old, similar but more mature and sophisticated. The sherry anticipated in the description is very toned down, making me suspect there are a lot of second-fill casks in use. Which is good, as the spirit is not overpowered. On the nose, I get notes of toffee, Ovaltine, apples, peaches, cinnamon, vanilla, dates, orange blossom, aniseed and a touch of amarena cherries. The latter two notes make me think of red wine casks, which Pam would reveal is part of the vatting. Just one Amarone cask was added to the mix, allegedly.
On the palate it has a medium body, and rich aromas of malt, whole grain toast, wood char, vanilla, toffee apples, hazelnuts, and cinnamon closing again on a light aniseed note. The finish is medium long, keeping quite consistent with the notes on both nose and palate of toffee apples, liquorice, cinnamon and vanilla.
Overall this bottle has a strong Arran identity and is not overpowered by the casks used.
Before moving to the next wine we got a sneaky extra dram of the special edition 17 year old, one I only took brief notes for:
Arran Premium Cask 17 Year Old, ex-Sherry (Fino) butts cask 06/800444 55.3%
Dark blond colour in the glass. I might have suffere from a bit of conditioning on this one knowing this was Fino sherry cask aged. In any case, I got a lot of cask-related notes here. On the nose, I got notes of salted almonds, saline, slightly herbaceous, closing on honey and mixed nuts. On the palate, the texture was smooth and quite mouthcoating. I tasted salted caramel, malt, aniseed, and almonds. A long but not super long finish on this one.
Arran Single Malt Private Cask, Ex-Sherry Butt 60.1%
This is the sherry bomb counterpart to the remnant renegade. The spirit is not bludgeoned to death by the cask and yet the two didn’t marry together, almost as if the spirit and sherry notes were running in parallel rather than melding in one. It is a nice whisky, but personally, the least captivating of the Lochranza tasting.
Amber colour in the glass. On the nose, it is juicy and spicy. Quite complex with notes of gingerbread, grilled and dried pineapple, fresh and dried apricots & peaches, candied orange peel, a hint of chocolate-covered coffee beans, and hazelnuts.
On the palate, it was mouthcoating, maybe a bit hot even accounting for the 60% abv, oaky, with leather polish, ginger spice, chocolate, and dried orange peel notes.
A nice long finish, with straightforward notes of peaches, orange chocolate, toffee and nuts.
Arran handfill 47.9% cask 20-VA-0912 aka “cask Sigma”
This was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Sold as second-fill sherry, it is all but. This is actually a funky vatting of ex-Fino sherry cask (the 2nd fill component), ex-Burgundy, making up the bulk of the vatting, ex-Tokaji and some ex-Fingal’s cut refill cask… write that on a label! We were told this cask got the moniker “Cask Sigma” among distillery employees. Not sure if that is good or bad, or if it refers to the Millenial connotation of Sigma.
Very much brown in appearance. The nose is sweet and spicy, with raisins, honey, marmalade, dried apricots, nuts, citrus peel, pepper, cinnamon, aniseed, herbs, a whiff of smoke, and some musty funk. On the palate, it has an oily texture. The taste is where it goes bonkers: dried apricots, dried mushrooms, lanolin, tons of malt, aniseed, loads of spice (black pepper, sweet spices) and slightly meaty, then toffee, aniseed and a hint of menthol. Very long finish.
What a rollercoaster of a dram. Maybe not the most put together but the wildest one I have had in a while. I am not even sure if I liked it or not, due to how much my preconceived ideas were challenged. In any case, I bought a 0.2L bottle to occasionally go back and take that roller coaster ride once more.
Arran Signature Series Edition 2 – Barrel Bonfire 50%
The second of the signature series is an 11-year-old whisky, aged 5 and a half years in standard American barrels and 5 and a half in Koval bourbon quarter casks. Made with malt peated to 42ppm.
Very light gold as you might expect from the casks used. The nose after the unsurprising first hit of woodsmoke, as you would expect with a name like barrel bonfire, shows a lovely balance between spirit and cask. I get yuzu, honey, vanilla, peach and pineapple, followed by some menthol, a strong hit of green cardamom and hazelnuts. On the palate, it is rich, with woody smoke, caramel, yuzu peel, hazelnuts, ginger and cardamom spice, and nectarine. It has a medium-long finish, with notes of peat, citrus, nectarine, caramel and and a hint of ginger spice.
While I liked it in the moment, I wasn’t immediately impressed by this during the Lochranza tasting, Yet, it is the one dram that stuck in my head afterwards. Did I make a mistake not grabbing a bottle? Once I retested it at home, I was sold. I went ahead and ordered a bottle.
Machrie Moor Fingal’s Cut Sherry Cask Finish 54.5%
Finally, we closed with this edition of Machrie Moor, originally created as a Lagg exclusive (but available at Lochranza at the time of my visit). It is a version of Fingal’s cut finished in an Oloroso quarter cask and bottled (according to the Arran website) at cask strength. The cask strength is what gives me a pause. If that is the case, how old is this to get down to 54%. Or maybe it is just the effect of the Quarter cask… I should have asked but didn’t.
A dark amber colour. The nose is rich and complex: floral and wood peaty turning into dark mint chocolate, a hint of espresso, creme caramel and orange marmalade. The mouthfeel is rich. Needs a drop of water to open up beyond peat and toffee. Just a couple of drops reveal tastes of orange, hazelnuts, and baking spice. The finish is quite long with woody peat, orange marmalade, menthol, dark chocolate and a touch of malt.
While I really enjoyed this last sample, it is one of those drams that is incredible on the nose and fine, but much simpler, on the palate. So close to being a banger.
Arran whisky rumours
As with my previous posts, I am sharing some of the “insider info” shared during my time at Lochranza.
The first rumor relates to the release of a future Arran barley release. For next year’s 30th anniversary of the distillery, Lochranz will release a 10 yo Arran, made with local barley and aged 25% in ex-Oloroso, casks.
And if you are a fan of Arran’s Amarone cask finished release, like me, keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming release fully matured in Allegrini’s Amarone casks.
The Lochranza Shop
I would be remiss not to spend a word on the shop. It is a bit of an oddity: half whisky geek heaven and half Isle of Arran souvenirs shop aimed at tourists. I suspect that reflects best the crowds that visit Lochranza each year: a fair share of whisky aficionados and a lot of tourists with more of a passing interest in the fine water of life.
Focusing on the whisky side of things. You can find all the standard original bottlings, minus the soon-to-be-re-released 18. At the time of my visit, there was also the full Machrie Moor lineup still available, only until stock lasts. On the other hand no Lagg is available here whatsoever. There was also a substantial number of special releases. Depending on your outlook that might be impressive or excessive.
Besides the two Signature series, the hand fill cask and the 17 YO ex-Fino and 11 YO Signature sherry cask sampled in the tasting, there were a few more. A 7 YO Madeira finished private cask, an 11 YO cask strength small batch matured in Marsala casks and the Arran’s 25-year-old. One thing is for sure, visiting and leaving empty-handed, would put even the most restrained whisky lovers to the test.
Stay tuned for the next Scottish Summer adventure, leaving Arran and off to Islay this time.
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