Arran 21 Years Old 1996 Cask #1843-939 (Claxton’s)

Claxton's was founded in 2007 by Chris Claxton Edwards in Hartlepool, North East England, building a reputation across the late 2000s and 2010s for careful single cask selection and the distinctive numbered cask label format that has become one of the recognisable visual identities in independent Scotch single malt. The Single Cask range is the company's flagship single cask programme. This Arran release captures 1996 vintage spirit at twenty one years old in an Oloroso butt that produced the substantial 609 bottle outturn for the Dutch market.

Spirit was distilled at Lochranza in 1996 and matured twenty one years in a single Oloroso seasoned butt. The cask reference 1843 939 follows the Claxton's working inventory cask numbering convention. Bottled in 2018 at 52.1% without chill filtration and without added colour.

Twenty one years of Oloroso butt maturation produces deep cask integration, with the sherry compound layer of sotolon, furfural, syringaldehyde and the oxidised polyphenols from the original wine ageing well developed against the underlying Arran spirit signature. The 1996 distillation year captures the second full production year at Lochranza, with the long maturation period sitting in the upper end of typical commercial Arran release ages.