The end of my last post made me realize that it was high
time to pull that dusty bottle of 10 year Arran
off my shelf for a thorough tasting. It can be hard for me to find the
motivation to write about a whisky that I’m indifferent to – it’s much easier
to get the ball rolling with a whisky that is spectacular, or even one that is
awful. But tasting a much more impressive bottling from the same distiller was
just the kick in the pants that I needed.
Before I get into the whisky (literally and literarily) I’d
like to take a look at the background of the distillery. I’ve talked before
about the massive downturn that the Scotch whisky industry went through in the
1980’s, but the reality of that time period truly comes to light when one looks
at the pattern of distillery openings and closings in Scotland over
that last five decades.
Information about distillery closings from the 1960’s is
hard to come by, but I’m relatively sure there were very few, if any, and
during that decade at least 13 new distilleries came on-line. The 1970’s saw
the trend begin to reverse, with just five new facilities being almost balanced
out by the three that were lost. Then things really went south in the 1980’s
with no less than 18 distilleries shutting their doors, and not a single new
one opening. Keep in mind that I’m only counting closures that were essentially
permanent – I’m not even considering the outfits that were mothballed for anywhere
from a few years to a decade before eventually coming back into operation. The
after effects of the 1980’s saw four more distilleries go under in the 1990’s,
but there was some hope as consumer demand surged and three new distilleries
came to be. In the first decade of the new millennium, six more new facilities
commenced production. In the same period roughly half a dozen have closed or
been mothballed. It remains to be seen if those mothballed distilleries will return
to production, or become permanent closures.
The point that I’m trying to get at here is that it would
take a lot of moxie to open a new distillery in Scotland in the early 90’s; but
that is just what Harold Currie, a former director of Chivas, did. He founded
the Isle of Arran distillery in 1993, construction began late in 1994 and the
stills were running by mid 1995.
The island is located in the Firth of Clyde, a body of water
that separates the Kintyre peninsula from the southwest coast of the Scottish
mainland. Arran has a rich distilling history,
although most of the 50+ distilleries that operated on the island in the early
1800’s were not licensed, and the last legal distillery closed in 1837. The
location of the new distillery, on the far north of the island, was chosen
partly for its exceptionally pure water source – Loch na Davie.
In the early years of operation, several very young
expressions were released, but now that they have enough stock aging, the
lineup is led by the 10 yr, as well as a 14 yr and a few “no age statement” cask
finished bottlings. Several limited releases seem to be available, as well as a
moderately peated version (most of the malt used here is unpeated). No chill
filtering is employed, and no caramel coloring used. As for the 10 year:
Pale golden in color.
Aromatic nose, mix of clay and floral notes.
Light to medium bodied.
Slightly sweet up front. Fairly floral through the mid
palate, and those flavors carry on through the respectably long finish, where
they are joined by warm spice notes of moderate intensity. The spice fades off
late in the finish, leaving the floral notes as the whisky’s final voice while
they turn slightly perfumed. It progresses through with no rough edges and decent
balance, but I’d like to see more complexity.
My feelings of mediocrity towards this whisky may be partly
down to personal preference. As I’ve put some time in with this bottle over the
last week, it seems to have grown on me a bit, and I think it’s really just the
tail end of the finish that I don’t care for.
No comments:
Post a Comment