Whisky : Arran 14 Year

Country/Region : Scotland/Islands

ABV : 46%

Cask : Ex-Bourbon/Sherry

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ Home

Nose : Tropical fruit buffet: pineapple, kiwi, papaya, hibiscus flowers.  There are sweet ripe raspberries, notes of vanilla, flan, and creamy caramel dulce de leche.  A fruity floral dessert.

Palate : Opens with tropical fruits; dried mangos, canned pineapple juice, chico (sapodilla), and floral vanilla.  Interesting mineral and wax notes clash a little bit with the fruity profile.  In the background a creamy strawberry along with clove and pepper spice round things out.

Finish : Long with sweet ginger and peppercorns.

Score : 6

Mental Image : Weekend morning, just after dawn, strolling the summer farmer’s market, the smell of cut fresh fruit and baked goods hangs in the air.

Something Better : Arran 18 Year (more refined, more intense fruit, similar tropical notes)

Something Similar : Yamazaki 12 Year (sweeter tropical fruit profile, more baking spices, coconut cream)

Something Worse : Arran 10 Year (similar profile, more spirit, more fruit)

Notes :  I think the Arran malt ages really well.  Each rung up the age-statement ladder gives a noticeable upwards shift in maturity: less spirit notes, less off notes, greater depth of tropical notes, and more full bodied spices.  Each step has its own virtues as well, a young spirity malt stands up better to hardy wine finishes, does not suffer as much from a cube of ice, and makes for an easy drinker on any day.

The Arran 14 took me a while to figure out.  I wrote up notes on it several times.  I loved the 10 Year and I loved the 18 Year, but the 14 Year really seemed to suffer middle child syndrome.  It was not the fun introductory malt anymore than it was the mature elder.  It lost some of the refreshing youth of the 10, but did not have the depth of the 18.  Was it an awkward teenager; no longer a cute child but far from a mature adult?

A few of the notes on the palate, the minerality and waxiness, do not complement the tropical fruit that otherwise dominates the dram.  I had to review this Arran several times because I did not recall picking up those notes so prevalently on any other expression and I am still not sure if it just my bottle/batch.

Overall I have enjoyed working my way through this bottle and I have loved the opportunity to share it with friends.  For a distillery still referred to as young or new (25 years being but the blink of an eye in the scotch world), Arran makes some incredible drams.  There have not been any on the shelves in my corner of the globe in about a year (aside from a shop charging $100 for this bottle), I am still hopeful that before I finish my last dram of Arran, I will have a chance to restock a bit.