Arran 1996

Cask Details

Tasting Notes

Nose – White Currants, Fruit Salads, pineapple, dustiness of baking sand

Palate – Spiced chutney – Stewed currants, becoming lime zest and wild thyme

Nose with water – Lemon curd, butter shortcrust, stewed pear

Palate with water – Golden caramel to black caramel. Blueberry muffin. Dried tobacco finish

There’s a very quick rush of fruitiness up the nose – a startling arrival of white currants, stewed pears and fruit salad sweets served up in the husk of a hollowed-out pineapple. All this on a tropical beach, where baked sand hums. On the palate, the fruits get stewed down into a spiced chutney, infused with wild beach-thyme and lime zest.

With water there’s a new, softer element of dairy, as if butter shortcrust has come to support an intricately constructed fruit tart. There’s an uplifting breeze of flavour rising high in the palate, which retreats quickly to leave dried tobacco leaf, star anise, and a warm, numbing tingle. We think this whisky is utterly perfect right now, and would recommend bottling soon. However, a couple more years in cask would bring out more fruitiness, to the new owner’s preference.

About The Distillery

The Isle of Arran claims to be able to represent all of Scotland in miniature. Its location in the Irish sea is a short ferry ride from the Scottish Lowlands, Highlands and Campbeltown, with Islay and the Hebrides a short, but challenging, hop over the Mull of Kintyre. Though a small isle, its landscape is certainly reminiscent of various parts of Scotland and the two distilleries on the Island have taken inspiration from a broad range of regional styles as well. Arran was historically a hotbed of illicit distilling activity, with farmers in the fertile south of the island distilling fearsome moonshine on tiny home stills, and then slipping the product into rickety boats that made the quick and dangerous starlit trip to Glasgow. When the last Arran still went silent in 1837, it seemed that the island’s whisky epic had come to an end. Not so – in 1995 the next volume in the saga began, as Arran distillery rose like a salty phoenix and proceeded to produce casks of wonderfully cereal-citrussy malt. Production has slowly stepped up as the fiercely independent Arran finds favour with more and more malt drinkers.

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Auction Details

• Bidding will end on July 18th at 11:00pm GMT
• The highest bidder at conclusion of the auction will immediately be charged a £500 deposit by credit card; the remaining balance will be due within 72 hours of auction close by bank wire transfer.
• Upon verification that all funds due have been received, ownership of the cask will be transferred to the buyer and the buyer will be sent a title certificate. As per Scottish regulations, the cask must remain in a government bonded warehouse until bottling.
• No samples will be provided during the auction. At the conclusion of the auction a complimentary sample will be sent to the winning bidder.
• If two bidders place a bid in the same amount, the first bid placed will be the winner.
• Storage will be included for a period of 2 years from the conclusion of the auction. All other costs related to storage, removal from storage, insurance, transportation, bottling and duties/taxes will be the sole responsibility of the buyer.
• A reserve price has been set for the auction. If the reserve price is not reached then the seller, in their sole discretion, can choose whether to accept the high bid or may offer a counter offer. All bids placed by buyers are binding, even when the reserve price has not been met, until the seller declines the highest bid.
• A 10% buyers premium will be added to the highest prevailing bid. No buyers premium will be due if the reserve price is not met and the seller choses not to accept the high bid.