Arran 18 Years Old 1996 Cask #96/528 (Rest & be Thankful Whisky Company)

The Rest and be Thankful is a historic mountain pass on the A83 in Argyll, Scotland, named for the inscription on an eighteenth century stone marker placed at the summit by soldiers from the 24th Regiment who built the road. The Rest & be Thankful Whisky Company takes its name from this Scottish geographical reference, operating as a small specialist bottler producing limited edition single cask releases through European retail. This Arran 18 Year Old draws on cask 96/528 from the 1996 vintage.

Spirit was distilled at Lochranza in 1996 and matured eighteen years in a single ex Bourbon American oak cask referenced 96/528. Bottled in 2015 at 55.3% without chill filtration and without added colour, with the 328 bottle outturn reflecting the working yield of the single cask after eighteen years.

Eighteen years of ex Bourbon maturation produces well integrated cask and spirit layering, with vanillin, whisky lactones and the developing oxidative cask compounds sitting in balance with the underlying Arran spirit signature. The 55.3% cask strength preserves the full lipid fraction and the textural depth of the unfiltered spirit. Flavour tag: nutty, consistent with the developing oxidative compounds characteristic of long aged Bourbon cask single malts.