Arran Single Cask – 2014 Spring Release 16 Years Old 1998

The Single Cask Spring and Autumn Release programme at Arran during the mid 2010s was a twice annual distillery selected single cask series. Where the Private Cask programme was driven by customer ownership and bottling timing, the Spring/Autumn Single Cask Releases were curated by the distillery itself, with master distiller James MacTaggart selecting individual casks from the working warehouse inventory for the seasonal release programme. The 2014 Spring Release used multiple individual casks bottled and released together, with each cask presented as a distinct single cask bottling.

Spirit was distilled at Lochranza in 1998 and matured sixteen years in single Oloroso cask 43, filled in the 1998 production year. Bottled in 2014 for the German market at 54.2% without chill filtration and without added colour, with the 565 bottle outturn reflecting a butt format Oloroso cask that retained significant volume after sixteen years.

Sixteen years of Oloroso cask maturation produces deep extraction of the sherry compound layer, with sotolon, furfural and the oxidised polyphenol fraction developed during the original wine ageing well integrated with the underlying Arran spirit signature. The 1998 distillation year captures the fourth full year of Lochranza commercial production, sitting in the inventory band that supported the early permanent age statement releases.