Arran Single Cask – 2014 Autumn Release 16 Years Old 1998

The 2014 Autumn Single Cask Release followed the Spring Release of the same year as the second half of the distillery's seasonal single cask programme. Where the Spring Release drew on butts producing larger outturns (565 and 586 bottles for casks 43 and 47), the Autumn Release used smaller cask formats producing the lower 246 and 279 bottle outturns. Cask 612 was filled in 1998 and matured sixteen years before bottling in 2014 for the German market.

Spirit was distilled at Lochranza in 1998 and matured sixteen years in single Oloroso cask 612. Bottled in 2014 at the natural cask strength of 54.3% without chill filtration and without added colour, with the 246 bottle outturn suggesting a hogshead format rather than the larger butts used in the Spring Release.

Sixteen years of Oloroso cask maturation in a smaller hogshead format produces a different extraction profile from butts of equivalent age. The higher surface area to volume ratio of a hogshead accelerates wood compound extraction and evaporative concentration, producing more intense cask interaction per unit time. The sherry compound layer of sotolon, furfural and polyphenols integrates with the underlying Arran spirit signature at higher concentration than in larger butt formats.