Whisky : Arran 6 Year, PM Spirits

Country/Region : Scotland/Islands*

ABV : 53.8%

Cask : First Fill Bourbon, First Fill Sherry

Age : 7 Years (Distilled 2012, Bottled July 2020)

Nose : Fruit, must, and rubber.  Gym equipment— medicine balls and tumbling mats— wooden bleachers, talcum powder, and disinfectant solutions.  Musty floral notes of faint tobacco and dry summer hay while fruit appeared as cherry cobbler and dried berries.

Palate : Medium-bodied with lovely clean flavors— grass, musty florals, and faint smoke.  Worn gym equipment—punching gloves and mitts— cleaning agents and stone floors.  Musty floral garden with lush green grass, wet loam, and a bubbling mossy koi pond.  Faint smoke lingered in the back with slightly acrid notes that reminded me of rush hour traffic.  Grainy rice crackers and salty nori flakes at the end.

Finish : Lingering dried florals and minerality.

Score : 5

Mental Image : Tranquil Japanese Garden

Notes : As with all the PM Spirits Arran this deserved a few asterisks.  Much like the 23 Year and 7 Year that were released in 2020, this Arran was not actually aged in Scotland and therefore does not meet the requirements to be labeled as Scotch.  Shortly after distillation, the three casks that composed this were relocated from the Isle of Arran to a cognac cottage in France.  Additionally, as with the others, the age listed on the label is wrong and the single malt spent an extra year sitting in the casks due to a bottling delay and the labels became outdated.

This interesting Arran was created by vatting together three casks— one first-fill ex-sherry and two first-fill ex-bourbon, one of which was peated.  The nose reminded me strongly of the gym, not a new fancy one, but an old and well-used gym.  The rubber notes were not off-putting at all, rather they were deeply nostalgic and sweet.  It was not a sulfurous rubber, but a musty pleasant aroma.

Overall, this one just did not quite come together for me.  It had loads of interesting complexity and I enjoyed the nostalgia for old gyms and karate training sessions, but the flavor notes never felt very harmonious.  I would absolutely accept a pour of this, but I would not go out of my way to try it again.