Arran Limited Edition 20 Years Old 1996

The early cask reference number 85 identifies this Oloroso seasoned cask as drawn from the very first working batch of the 1996 production year at Lochranza, sitting within the documentary inventory of the distillery's earliest commercial period. The cask was bottled at twenty years old in 2016 through the Limited Edition programme for the Italian market, with the cask owner having selected the release timing at the 20 year milestone.

Spirit was distilled at Lochranza in early 1996 and matured twenty years in a single Oloroso seasoned cask. Bottled in 2016 at 51.2% without chill filtration and without added colour, with the 335 bottle outturn reflecting the working yield of the cask after twenty years of evaporative concentration.

Twenty years of Oloroso cask maturation produces deep integration of the sherry compound layer, with sotolon, furfural, syringaldehyde and the oxidised polyphenol fraction from the original wine ageing well developed against the underlying Arran spirit signature. The slow oxidative development across two decades drives heavier aldehyde compound accumulation alongside the developed cask wood lactones, producing the characteristically dark sherried profile of long aged Arran Oloroso single casks.