Arran 1997 – The Un-Official almost 17th Cask #1997/525

The Un Official almost 17th title plays on the technicality that the cask was bottled at sixteen years rather than the seventeen years its 1997 distillation year and 2014 bottling year would otherwise suggest. This kind of wit driven naming is characteristic of the Dutch and broader European specialist whisky retail trade, where bottlers and cask owners use the freedom of private label naming to add personality to single cask releases. Cask 1997/525 sits in the mid range of 1997 production year cask numbering.

Spirit was distilled at Lochranza in 1997 and matured sixteen years in a single Oloroso seasoned cask. Bottled in 2014 at 52.1% without chill filtration and without added colour, with the 270 bottle outturn reflecting the working yield of the single Oloroso cask.

Sixteen years of Oloroso cask maturation produces deep extraction of the sherry compound profile, with sotolon, furfural and the polyphenol fraction from the original wine ageing well integrated with the underlying Arran spirit signature from the 1997 distillation year. The cask supplies the dark sherry, dried fig and gentle drying spice framework over the residual citric and stone fruit character that the spirit retains through long maturation.