Arran Single Cask 26 Years Old 1996

The 1996 vintage at Arran captures the distillery in its second full commercial production year, with stock laid down that year having been used across decades of commercial releases. By twenty six years the surviving 1996 inventory has narrowed to specific casks that have maintained quality and volume through long maturation. Cask 1996/673 was filled in 1996 and matured twenty six years before being bottled in 2022 for the Swiss specialist whisky retail trade through the Single Cask series.

Spirit was distilled at Lochranza in 1996 and matured twenty six years in a single ex Bourbon American oak cask. Bottled in 2022 at 48.2% without chill filtration and without added colour, with the 152 bottle outturn reflecting significant evaporative loss across the long maturation.

Twenty six years of ex Bourbon maturation produces deep cask integration with the underlying Arran spirit signature, with vanillin, whisky lactones, the toasted sugar fraction from American oak and the slowly developed oxidative compounds well integrated across the long maturation period. The 48.2% bottling reflects natural cask strength loss through evaporation over the twenty six year period, with the lipid fraction remaining in solution at the unfiltered presentation.