Gleann Mór is one of those bottlers that are not available in The Netherlands, as far as I know. What put them on my radar quite a few years ago was that they bottled a Lagavulin.

It’s virtually unheard of to find indie Lagavulin, and even more so with the actual distillery name on the label. In the end it turned out to be ‘just another Lagavulin’, but with a spirit that good, that’s not a bad thing at all.

This Arran was bottled around the same time and somehow it found it’s way into my sample collection where it was promptly forgotten. Well, that’s not entirely true. I mixed it up with something else.

Around that time there was this festival bottling from Arran, which I didn’t really like. And somehow I though this was another sample of that, instead of what it really was.

Anyway, a while ago I tried it. We’re still going through old notes here, while I’m still unable to smell anything. It turned out to be quite different from the festival bottling…

Sniff:
Very dry and bitter on the nose, but the sweetness starts coming through right after. Cherry stones, dates, light oak.

Sip:
Soft with lots of dried fruits, sherry and spices. Some American oak, with barley, but mostle dates, plums, figs, the works.

Swallow:
A bit of a short finish, with a lot of fruits, and sweetness.

This is a very decent sherry cask bottling from Arran. While this is not a rare thing, it has been a while since I had any and this one just reminded me of the solid quality the distillery generally puts out.

Of course, I stopped having many sherry casked Arran since everyone was bottling them and things got a bit boring, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad in any way. So, good stuff. Nice and fruity, with a lovely bitter hint on the nose.

86/100

Arran 19, 07/1996-08/2015, 48.8%, Gleann Mór (A Rare Find). Available in the secondary market for € 150