Whisky : Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength Second Edition

Country/Region : Scotland/Islands

ABV : 58.2%

Cask : Ex-Bourbon?

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ Home

Nose : A meadow on fire: ash, smoke, lilies, lilacs, wild flowers all mingle together.  There is faint iodine, and a sweet coating of gingerbread frosting.

Palate : Very light body and not very complex palate.  Dominated by syrupy liquid smoke from a grassfire or burning coconut husks with a slightly metallic-battery twang.  Fleeting floral and sausage notes.

Finish : Medium to short caramel and coriander.

Score : 3

Mental Image : Trudging through a field after a wild fire; faint hints of spring aside, it’s all smoke and sweat.

Something Better : Arran Smuggler Series : The Illicit Stills (heavily peated, more spice, more body)

Something Similar : Kilchoman Machir Bay (similar thin body & ashy smoke, more herbal notes)

Something Worse : Islay Storm (fruitier, similar body, less finish, cleaner smoke)

Notes : This was the first Arran I ever had that I just could not drink.  I gave it a D because if someone offered it to me, I would take it.  Maybe I could even find a way to enjoy it.  But I would never buy this bottle after trying a dram off it.  It makes me worried for the regular Machrie Moor I have in my cabinet— I am just holding out hope that since it is a different batch it will be better.

This dram also made me rethink whether I really wanted a heavily peated Arran.  This Machrie Moor edition clocked in at 20 PPM (phenol parts per million), which, while not heavily peated, is still significantly peated.  The mild and fruity Arran malt is completely lost and overwhelmed by the peat influence.  Arran definitely can do peat well; the Smuggler Series featured two blends featuring peat and they were great, but this was not good at all.  It was simple and one note and Arran does not play the smoke note very well.

This is a huge miss and leaves me feeling like maybe I dodged a bullet when my previous attempts to get special release bottles of heavily peated Arran fell through.  I do believe the best peated Arran is yet to come.  The Lagg distillery that opened in spring 2019 will make a heavily peated malt, but it will utilize a thicker more oily barley which I imagine will probably complement the peat better.  At least, I hope it does not get lost in the smoke as this one did.