About The Arran 12 Year Old Cask Strength Single Malt Scotch Whisky
“The reason the distillery was built here,” says James MacTaggart, the master distiller at Arran Distillery, “was because there was a very good water supply. In fact, it was tasted and it was decided that it was probably one of the best water supplies in Scotland for making whisky.”
Arran 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky represents the flagship whisky produced at Arran Distillery. The whisky is made from unpeated Scottish barley, which is malted and then fermented using a proprietary strain of yeast. Once the barley has been fermented, the wash is distilled twice — first through Arran’s copper-pot wash still and then again through Arran’s copper-pot spirit still. The stills were custom designed, says MacTaggart, and “shaped to allow the lighter vapors to come up through the stills.” As a result, Arran Single Malt Scotch Whisky has an appreciably softer and more delicate flavor profile.
Arran 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky is a limited edition single malt that is matured in a combination of first-fill sherry butts and second-fill sherry hogshead casks for a minimum of 12 years. “Selecting the right cask, knowing when that cask should be opened or left to mature for a little longer or adding a specific cask finish to enhance the flavor are gifts it takes generations to perfect,” says MacTaggart. After aging for a dozen years, Arran 12 Year Old was bottled at cask strength.
The whisky has an aroma of dark chocolate, coffee beans and baked apples. Notes of sherry, cinnamon, tropical fruits and citrus dominate the palate, and lead to a finish accented by touches of spice and salty tang.
Arran 12 Year Old Cask Strength earned the Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2013. We have only a handful of these bottles available! Pick one up today!
About Arran
Arran Distillers is a whisky producer from Scotland’s Isle of Arran, which was founded in 1994 by Harold Currie, a former managing director at Chivas, and two associates. A year later, the company’s first distillery opened in the island’s northernmost village of Lochranza, which was selected for the high quality of its water. This marked the return of whisky making to the island, which at various times in the early 1800s had over 50 illicit distilleries making superlative spirit. The island’s only licensed distillery then was in Lagg, operating from 1825 to 1837. The Arran distillery’s Visitor Centre was opened on 9th August 1997 by none other than Her Majesty The Queen, who was presented with two casks for Princes William and Harry on the occasion. These casks are still slumbering peacefully in Warehouse 1. In 1998, the first cask of Arran Single Malt Scotch Whisky was opened after 3 years of maturation by Scottish film star Ewan McGregor. This was the first legal dram on Arran for over 160 years.
About Scotch
Scotch is the most popular whisky in the world and is considered the king of them all! There are five whisky regions in Scotland (six if you count the not officially recognized Islands), and each of them produces spirits with unique properties and distinct tasting notes. (The type of grain used determents the type of the scotch.)
Malt whisky is made of malted barley, and grain whisky uses other grains like corn or wheat. Most of the time, a whisky is blended from different distilleries hence the name blended scotch, but if a malt whisky is produced in a single distillery, we get something extraordinary called a single malt.
Check out our impressive selection of scotch whiskies, find your new favorite in the Top 10 scotch whiskies, or explore our treasury of rare & hard to find scotch whiskies.