Arran

Single Malt Scotch Whisky
10 years old, 46% alcohol

Apparently today is World Whisky Day. I won’t go into detail about what this is, as you can just Google it and find out for yourselves, but essentially it is a day to celebrate and appreciate our favourite tipple. I don’t necessarily need an excuse to have a glass of whisky on a Saturday evening, but this seems like a good one.

I recently bought myself a few bottles of whisky, all of which I have tasted at some point before, that I thought would be good ones to review. In my opinion it makes sense to only review whiskies that I think are obtainable. I am therefore talking about whiskies that are reasonably-priced and actually likely to be available to buy in your local specialist whisky shop. If someone does happen to stumble across one of my reviews and then thinks that the whisky they are reading about is one they might also like to try, then I want to at least know that they will themselves be able to get hold of a bottle. It would make no sense to review a bottle of 21 year old, distillery exclusive, limited edition, single cask whisky that cost me £140 from the distillery shop (it was an impulse buy and actually it only cost £135, as they offered £5 off purchases in the distillery shop on production of your distillery tour ticket). Anyway such a whisky is pointless to review as I know that it is unlikely to still be obtainable and just writing about how much I (hopefully) enjoyed it would likely be of little interest. So today I am reviewing one of the three obtainable whiskies I bought recently - the Arran 10 year old single malt.

I actually poured myself a glass about twenty minutes ago and was forced into letting it stand in the glass for a while. In typical Saturday night fashion, as soon as I had poured it I heard the sound of crying coming from the kids’ room, as my daughter had woken up, as she sometimes inexplicably does. It took me a good fifteen minutes to get her back to sleep, but I managed it and now she’s snoozing away happily again. If I’m lucky, I should have an hour or so to get on with this review before she wakes up again.

This whisky smells really interesting. After doing a couple of reviews I am starting to realise just how much difference there is in the smells of whiskies. I didn’t really take much notice before but now I am starting to get the hang of it and I am picking up quite a few different aromas in this one. At first the stand-out smell is apples and then some vanilla, but then there is a very surprising smell of coconut that instantly reminds me of the tropical flavour fruit juice drinks I used to take to school in my packed-lunch box when I was a lad. I haven’t picked up this particular scent in any whiskies before. When I drink a whisky with the intention of reviewing it I usually write a few things down in my notebook to make sure I don’t forget. Afterwards I usually compare what I have written with the official tasting notes online. I visit the Arran website where the nose is described as “luscious citrus fruits”. This is most disappointing as there is no mention of any of the smells I experienced and I didn’t write anything down about citrus fruits. This rocks my confidence a little and I realise I need to keep practising.

I have a real soft spot for Arran whisky. A couple of years ago my wife, daughter and I went on holiday to Scotland with some friends. We took a day trip to the Isle of Arran on the ferry and popped into the distillery for a bite to eat, a guided tour and a tasting session. It was a fantastic day out. The island itself is absolutely stunning and the distillery tour really was a lot of fun, hosted by enthusiastic, knowledgeable staff and offering delicious whiskies. I tasted the 10 year old single malt on the tour but I don’t remember too much about it other than thinking it was quite nice but it doesn’t stand out in my memory compared to some of the older and more expensive whiskies we tried. I must say that the 18 year old single malt from Arran is one of the best whiskies I’ve tasted and I will certainly buy another bottle of that soon. I would also like to buy a bottle of the 21 year old at some point, but that is currently a little out of my price range.

Anyway back to the 10 year old, which is currently sitting in my glass. It really does taste strongly of apple to me, but it’s more than just apple - it reminds me of cider or apple wine. There is also a slightly spicy element to it, reminding me a little of the mulled cider I had once tried at a Christmas market. One thing I do notice from my first couple of sips is that the alcohol is very dominant in the taste. The whisky is bottled at 46% and is actually what I had expected from a younger whisky that hasn’t been diluted to 40% alcohol. This is not necessarily a bad thing but the alcohol taste is, for me, too dominant here; overpowering the other tastes and drowning out the smells if my nose ventures a little too far into the glass.

For some reason I decided at this point to be brave and do something I’ve never done before - add some water to my whisky. As I didn’t have a pipette to hand, I decided to ‘simply’ tip a little water from the glass that was on the table next to me. While trying to be careful to just tip a drop or two, something went horribly wrong and my notebook and trouser leg are now quite wet. Luckily only a few drops went into the whisky as planned. I must leave the whisky to stand again for a few minutes while I look for a towel to dry myself and my notebook. When I return I notice that the whisky’s smell has become softer and the vanilla smell is much more prominent. The taste is also quite different. The edge has been taken off so that the alcohol is no longer so overpowering. It now tastes much sweeter and is smoother and easier to drink. The whisky leaves a lingering aftertaste of spiced apple in my mouth. It’s really interesting and very, very nice.

I knew that experts add a few drops of water to certain whiskies but I am still surprised at how much of a difference it has made here. Moreso, the whisky was actually far more pleasant to drink with a little water added. I have previously mentioned that I like to drink my whisky exactly as it comes out of the bottle and have always been reluctant to add water. I surprised myself by finally feeling the need to add some, but I really did feel that there was something in the taste of the neat whisky that needed to be softened slightly. I must admit to being a little disappointed to know that adding water does actually improve the flavour in this case and I now realise I will always be faced with the question of whether or not to add water whenever I try a new whisky.

This makes me wonder why a whisky is bottled and sold at 46% alcohol when it actually tastes better when diluted slightly with a few drops of water. Shouldn’t it be bottled and sold at the volume at which it tastes best? After all, adding water is simply adding a little more of one of the few ingredients that the whisky is already made from. If you think of your favourite rock song, it is very likely made up of drums, bass, vocals and rhythm guitar. Most of the best songs ever written will sound just fine if played in this configuration. But when you add a bit more guitar - the lead guitar - they sound even better. However, when you buy or stream this music, you would expect that the lead guitar has already been added by the band during the production process so it already sounds its best when you listen to it. You don’t expect to buy an album and have to add some extra guitar riffs yourself. So why should you have to buy a whisky that tastes fine as it is, but only tastes its best when you add some more of one of the existing ingredients yourself?

Adding a little water in this case turns a good whisky into a very good whisky, as it softens that very dominant alcohol sensation. I feel like I have really learned something new during this review and this will likely change the way I approach drinking my whisky from now on. Having previously stubbornly dismissed the idea of adding water, I now think I have more of an idea of when I should do so. I have also learned I will need to practise my water-tipping technique as I found it a little challenging to just tip a few drops from one glass to the other without making a mess. Any advice on this latter point would be gratefully received. I refuse to use a pipette. It just wouldn’t feel right.

I remembered I wanted to say something about the branding of Arran whiskies. When I first saw them on the shelves they were fairly ‘normal’ looking bottles with quite bog-standard branding. I must admit it looked a little unspectacular and really didn’t stand out on the shelf of my local whisky shop. I guess someone at Arran must have realised this because they completely changed their branding a couple of years ago and it now looks fantastic. I love the minimalist feel to it and the new bottle shape evokes memories of the little milk bottles they used to give children at school every day back in the 1980s. Another well thought-out aspect of the branding is that each version of whisky in the range is presented with a different colour label and tube. It makes it really tempting to collect them all, as they would look great lined up on the sideboard. My wife would never agree to that though.

The minimalist approach means there is not too much information written on the bottle. After the name, the next key piece of information tells me this whisky is ‘non-chill filtered’ and ‘natural colour’. I am aware that this is supposed to be very important and, at Arran, they obviously agree with this enough to make this information so prominent on the bottle. This says to me that they are very proud to deliver their product in its pure unaltered form, which must be a good thing. I must spend some time researching this point. If the processes of adding colour and chill filtering are so detrimental to a whisky, why do so many distilleries do it and why do so many people buy it?

I move my eyes towards the bottom of the bottle’s label and I realise that the tasting notes are written on there too. However, they are a little different to the ones stated online. It mentions “coconut character”. Suddenly I am happy again. I knew I could smell coconuts and seeing this written down has boosted my confidence once more. I think this is a good excuse to have a second glass. Now, if I can just try and smell that “luscious citrus fruit”.

Happy World Whisky Day!

Score neat: 8/10 with water added: 8.5/10

Reviewed by Peter on 15 May 2021

While drinking I was listening to ‘Kingdom of Rust’ by Doves.