Arran Fino Sherry Cask

Fino sherry cask finishing is significantly less common in Scotch whisky than oloroso or Pedro Ximenez cask use. Fino is the lightest of the sherry styles, biologically aged under a layer of flor yeast that prevents oxygen contact and produces a fresh, pungent and almond driven dry wine. The casks used for Fino maturation carry a very different residue from oxidative sherry styles, with the flor yeast leaving its own metabolic signature in the wood. Arran has released Fino cask whiskies periodically as part of the Small Batch programme.

Maturation runs in first fill ex Bourbon American oak barrels at Lochranza for the primary phase, with the Fino cask finishing in American oak butts or hogsheads previously used for Fino sherry production in Jerez. Bottled at 54.2% without chill filtration and without added colour.

Fino casks deliver a distinctive flavour signature absent from oloroso or Pedro Ximenez wood. Biological ageing under flor yeast leaves behind acetaldehyde, sotolon at low levels, and the specific aroma compounds developed by the yeast metabolism, including the almond and bread crust profile characteristic of long aged Fino. The cask wood carries this residue into the whisky alongside the lower residual sugar of dry sherry style, producing a drier, nuttier and more savoury sherry profile than the standard sherry cask Arran releases.