Arran 10 Years Old

Arran 10 Years Old is the foundation expression of Isle of Arran Distillers, the modern incarnation of legal whisky making on the Isle of Arran after the 158 year gap that followed the closure of Lagg distillery in 1837. The distillery was founded by Harold Currie, a former Chivas director and D Day veteran, with first spirit running through the spirit safe at 2.29pm on 29 June 1995. This 2019 bottling for the European market sits within the autumn 2019 rebrand that consolidated the core range and coincided with the opening of the sister Lagg distillery for peated production.

Production at Lochranza relies on soft, mineral poor water from Loch na Davie, a hill loch sitting above the peat line on granite bedrock. The wash is fermented in stainless steel washbacks for around 55 hours, a relatively long ferment that pushes the lactic and ester development further before distillation in tall onion shaped stills with high reflux. The new make is consistently fruity and clean, with pronounced pear, citrus and green apple esters carried forward into cask. This 10 Years Old is matured in a combination of first fill ex Bourbon barrels and sherry casks, then bottled at 46% without chill filtration and without added colour.

The first fill Bourbon component contributes the vanillin and cis whisky lactones derived from charred American oak hemicellulose breakdown, alongside the coconut and toasted sugar notes typical of refilled American oak heads. The sherry portion adds furfural, syringaldehyde and a softer dried fruit layer through extraction of seasoning compounds from the European oak. At 46% and unfiltered, the long chain fatty acid esters remain in solution and carry the full texture of the spirit, hence the characteristic creamy mouthfeel. Flavour profile: citric, vanilla, fresh fruit, honey, new wood, chocolate.