The other day hubby was watching his favorite whisky YouTuber Ralfy vlog about the 2023 winner of the Online Scotch Whisky Award. By the time he had finished watching the video he told me he had just bought a bottle from Amazon because it was on special offer 😏. Ok, I have to admit a reduction from £43 to £36 is a pretty good deal.
This is the Arran single malt 10 year old, it won the OSWA 2023, an award voted by the public whisky drinking community. Hubby took it to my brother-in-law's when we went over for dinner a few days later. Sharing always tastes better.
Arran is the name of an Island in Scotland, west of Glasgow. The distillery started in 1994, fairly young by comparison to some that's been around for centuries. The bottle design is pretty simple and informative, you know what you're getting immediately - a non chill filtered single malt 46% ABV 10 year old. That's basically all you need to know.
The logo is very contemporary, originally I thought it was the outline of the the Isle of Arran. After a bit of Googling, it turns out it's about the water source, one of the, if not the most important ingredient in whisky making. The six rings represents how the water travels from the source through six mountains. It gets purified more and more as it reaches the distillery, hence the inner rings being a sharper colour. The vat represents the distillery of course, and the eagles are apparently a big part of the distillery, resident birds from the beginning. They also have braille on the front.
Ok, let's move onto the most important part, whisky tasting. As many of you may know, I don't actually drink whisky, but I do enjoy writing about it coz hubs and my brother in laws collectively have a decent collection. I always try a couple of small sips because you can't write a whisky review without trying the stuff. First the smell, this didn't hit me across the head like some other whiskys, though it was pretty intense. I took a sip straight after we poured it out and I thought it tasted a little plastic at first. I've never experienced this before. Then I quickly got a hint of toffee. Then hubs suggested we add a drop of water. My second sip didn't taste of plastic anymore, and it was a tad lighter on the palate. I couldn't work out what the taste was though 🤷. Then we let the dram sit for a while and I tasted a third sip. This time it was smoother, like a dragon that had been tamed, but I couldn't still couldn't work out any specific flavours. The after taste lingered on for quite a long time, I guess that's good.
Overall, both hubs and my brother in law thought the Arran was very good and enjoyed ig very much.
