Look at me reviewing a recent release of which I wasn’t sent a sample! That never happens!

Anyway, this one popped up a few weeks ago on the shelves of Dutch whisky shops. It stood out because it being a 13 year old whisky, at a reasonable price. Nowadays, whisky of this age from a somewhat special release generally clocks in at € 100 or more. This one didn’t. It still is widely available for under € 75!

Then, a wine cask, you say? I generally don’t really go for those, although I feel I’ve been saying that often recently, which defeats the point a little bit. Now I know Arran has some experience with weird cask usage from the start of the distillery, and I do think wine casks usually work better with peated whisky.

So, reasonable price, decent age, limited release, interesting cask (when with peated whisky). Let’s go!

Sniff:
There’s a combination of fruity cask influence, barley and wood, and a whiff of smoke going on. It seems like there’s a tightrope act going on with all flavors being equally present and balanced. After a little while there’s some dark chocolate being added to the red fruits and slightly funky wine cask.

Sip:
The palate is very soft for a 56% whisky, but there is some freshly cracked black pepper for a little bit of bite. The wine casks are present, but kept in check. Slightly funky with old, wet wood, straw and blue grapes jam.

Swallow:
The finish leaves a bit of bite behind with black pepper and grape jam. There’s some straw and wet oak again.

A pretty present wine cask (like always), but the cask influence is really kept in check. Luckily, because the Arran style makes for a rather light whisky. In this case it works quite well and it’s an enjoyable dram. Especially if you realize this is available for an acceptable € 70!

So, if you can get this at MSRP, it’s quite good for what you pay for it. One of the better recent releases in regard to value for money.

87/100