Arran Amarone Cask Finish

Amarone Cask Finish is among the more individual expressions in Arran's wine wood programme, sitting alongside the Port and Sauternes finishes as a permanent or recurring range entry. Amarone della Valpolicella is produced through the appassimento method, where harvested Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara grapes are dried on bamboo racks or wooden trays for several months before fermentation, concentrating the sugars and developing distinctive flavour compounds. The casks Arran sources have previously held this dried grape wine through a typical two to three year ageing.

Primary maturation of the spirit takes place in first fill ex Bourbon American oak barrels at Lochranza. The spirit is then transferred to ex Amarone casks, generally Slavonian or French oak with a coarser grain than the American oak underlay. Bottled at 50% with no chill filtration and no colouring added.

The drying of Amarone grapes through appassimento concentrates polyphenols and produces elevated levels of glycerol, ethanol and complex aldehydes that leave a particular residue in the oak. The casks impart dried fig, raisin and dark cherry notes alongside the structural tannins absorbed from the wine. The longer chain anthocyanin pigments produce the visible pink tinged amber of Amarone matured whisky. Flavour structure runs from the Bourbon vanilla underlay into the Amarone driven dried fruit and spice layer.