The Eagle Has (Finally) Landed? Arran 17 Year Old

Here at Caskstrength, we have a distinct soft spot for the Arran distillery. 

Back in 2011, when we decided to embark on our epic journey into the A-Z of Whisk(e)y, we began with A for Arran- a particularly fine 14 year old expression in our opinion, which quickly sold out.  

The Arran itself was deliciously light in character, full of orchard fruit, caramel malt and zest. When looking at the range of Arrans available We wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 10 year old to anyone looking to experience a single malt for the very first time (a steal at around £30) and the 14 year old continues to develop the distinctly fruity softness to another degree. 

In fact, we came to associate Arran with the flavours of summer, despite there being a host of other more robust offerings including a host of sherry and wine finishes available, alongside the lighted peated Machrie Moor and the spicy, slightly spirity Devil's Punch Bowl. 

The distillery's newest offering, a 17 year old, is the oldest expression to date (continuing the countdown to next year's 18 year old, after the official release of a 16 year old last year) and marks another turning point in the its very own spirited journey.  But rather than focus on the full fat, buttery rich sweetness of first fill bourbon to give all those lovely light summery notes, this release is made up from sherry hogsheads.    

So where does it fit into the canon of current releases?

Well, the good(ish) news is that it isn't a million miles from any of the previous ones...

Arran - 17 Year Old -  46% - RRP £65

Nose: Undeniably sweet from the get go, with a clean malty cereal note, tangy orange zest, a hint of golden syrup, some hazelnuts and a little liquorice. It isn't the most complex 17 year old you're likely to encounter and shares a lot of the hallmarks with the distillery's younger expressions.  

Palate: Slightly sharp initially, but with a return of the orange zest, a little spiced sugar syrup, more chopped nuts, fragrant marzipan and green apple. Given time, the orchard fruits we have come to expect develop with soft white peaches and pears coming to the fore. Again, it isn't the boldest palate you'll encounter, but it is certainly in-keeping with the Arran we have grown to love.

Finish: Slightly short, with lingering chopped hazelnuts and a touch of liquorice.  

Overall: Anyone hanging on for Arran's ascent into the realms of deep, dark complexity will be sorely disappointed. But in our opinion, that is unlikely to happen any time soon. The distillery has set its stall out as a characteristically light, easy drinking whisky and, wait for it... they have easily achieved this again with the 17 year old. For the price, you are getting a very dependable and well made whisky (given the cost of the numerous No Age Statement whiskies out there).  It may lack the bold touches other distilleries achieve at this age but with spring definitely joyfully bounding around like a puppy full of penny sweets, whiskies like this most certainly come into their own.  

Fright night In Room 666… Devil’s Punch Bowl Chapter II - An Omen?

Today, you find us in a slightly diabolical place… Literally.    After checking in to our hotel at Gatwick Airport the night before a short day trip to Scotland (which requires a very early start) we find ourselves in the position of staying in the room below:

Talk about 'The Number Of The Best' (Western)

Before we pull the duvets close around our ears and start to worry about the strange knocking noise from the wardrobe (either the sound of Freddie Krueger sharpening his bladed glove, or a slightly rickety ironing board that wasn’t replaced properly) we realised our location was probably the best possible location to review one of the samples of a few recent purchases we have in our travel bags,  – Arran’s second chapter of their well received Devil's Punch Bowl.   

This time around the demonic inspired bottling has been put together from a range of some 27 different casks, including 17 ex-sherry and 10 ex-bourbon casks, four of which have held peated Arran. We’re told that the actual liquid ranges from vintages between 1997 to 2004. 

So with the wind starting to howl outside (possibly just another A320 Airbus landing) and strange shadowy figure lurking outside (as this is a Premier Inn hotel, we’re presuming it’s Lenny Henry) we pour a couple of drams. Will we last the night, or will the chilling Room 666 claim another couple of victims…

Arran - Devil’s Punch Bowl - Chapter II – 6,600 bottles - 53.1% - RRP £72.99

Nose: Young and a little spirit initially, leading into a touch of fresh orchard fruit (greengages and granny smith apples,) plus a slightly dried fruit note.  With a dash of water, a malty cereal note develops, with a touch of dried leaves and a little light smokiness.

Palate: Some feisty ginger hits first, with a softer caramel/honeyed note emerging afterwards with some drying spice. With water, the peat begins to develop. Not overpowering, but certainly present and dry, with a hint of sootiness on the back palate.

Finish: Lingering notes of clean malt and a slight earthy/dryness with a touch of smoke.

Overall: Perhaps more Rocky Horror than The Evil Dead in the fearsome stakes, but all in all, another decent and well put together whisky from Arran, a distillery which continues to punch above its weight.  

Caskstrength And Carry On: Bottle 'C'

Ahoy, Mateys!

Okay, we’ll admit it... the frequency of posts on Caskstrength.net has not been as regular as we would have liked so far in 2013. The number of samples piling up on our desk is beginning to resemble World of Whiskies at Heathrow T5 and we will, we promise, get rolling on these very soon, so expect a landslide of entertaining, educational and irreverent posts later this month and on in to the new year.

One of the reasons we’ve been slightly distracted recently is due to us working hard on getting everything sorted for our new bottling in our series of A – Z whiskies.

You’ll remember that we started our A – Z with a single cask Arran release in 2011 for 'A', followed up by last year’s BenRiach, for B. Both of which were highly limited and sold in a heartbeat... and so, as night follows day, our ‘B’ bottling will be followed by our ‘C’ offering.

In order to have this next release lined up, Neil and I have been up and down to Scotland, like a crazy whisky yoyo, making sure each and every detail of this next release has been covered and so far it’s looking ship shape and Bristol fashion...  We’re very excited about it, so much so, that we’ve shot a little teaser video to give you a taste for what is on the way, with a slight twist: we’re not actually going to tell you what it is, just yet.

And this is where you step in. 

If, after watching the video, you have an educated guess as to which ‘C’ we are bottling, then you can send us your guess, along with your age and country of residence, to carryon@caskstrength.net and we’ll pick TWO winning entries to send a free bottle to. Closing date for the competition is 15^th March 2013 and the usual T&C’s apply (over legal drinking age, etc).

Caskstrength And Carry On / Teaser Trailer from Caskstrength Creative on Vimeo.

(for those of you on our mailing list, the video can be found by clicking this link here)
(for those of you on an Android device, you can watch on youtube by clicking here)

The whisky will be officially released on March 27th at 10am though Master of Malt. We are yet to finalise the RRP, but as with the last two, will be priced at a level which makes us look a little bit mental...

Our Arran Sells Out... and an interesting cigar event for ladies!

Well that all happened pretty quickly... It gives us great pleasure to report that our Caskstrength and Carry On bottling of Arran officially sold out just 4 days after going on sale. Thanks to everyone who decided to buy a bottle and we really hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Fortunately, if you did want to try it, all is not lost. Master Of Malt are offering it in their Drinks By The Dram series, for the very reasonable £3.99.

As we started at the letter 'A', it seems rude not to try to bottle the alphabet of whisky now...expect an update on 'B' sometime soon...

Competition Time!!

We can happily report that one bottle was held back and we've decided to give it away as a competition prize! It is signed by James MacTaggert, Master Distiller at Arran and if you fancy trying your hand at winning it, all you need to do is follow this simple procedure:

Visit our Facebook page and 'like' it !!

www.facebook.com/caskstrength

At 12pm on Friday 15th July, we'll be selecting one winner at random and the Arran will be winging its way over to you!!

Obviously you'll need to be over 18 years old to enter if you're a UK resident or over the legal drinking age in your country of residence. We'll be checking... ;-)

And that's not all... In one of the boxes which hold the bottles, Joel and I placed a special golden ticket. If you've bought this bottle (take the bottle out and have a look) follow the instructions and you'll bag yourself an additional single cask bottle of Arran!!

Man, we're too good to you lot. ;-)

Changing the subject slightly, there's a excellent event happening next Monday 11th July, for ladies only!

At Boisdale Canary Wharf, cigar connoisseur Ms Lalla Kaur is teaming up with Chivas/The Glenlivet ambassador Phil Huckle for the launch of the First Ever 'Ladies Only Event' , featuring an evening of Cigars, Cocktails and Canapes.

Here's a list of the goods you ladies will be able to enjoy:

The Cigar:

Hoyo De Monterry

Epicure No. 1

46rg 5 3/8” smoking time: up to 45 minutes

The Cocktails:

Summer Wind

Blood & Sand

The Whiskies:

Chivas Regal 18yo

The Glenlivet 18yo

£30 per person. To book, please contact rob@boisdale-cw.co.uk or call 020 7715 5818

Slainte!

Hey Up... It's our Arran...

Today is a bit of a proud day at Caskstrength towers. After much tinkering, to'ing and fro'ing, the release date for our Caskstrength & Carry On Arran single malt has come around.

A little while back, we decided to put our money where our mouse is and buy a cask, to celebrate our 3rd birthday. Our friends at The Arran Distillery, seemed to have just the ticket, a 1st-fill bourbon cask, filled in 1998, which was only going to yield 92 bottles. A small release, but by no means a small whisky. We were really taken with the rich, sweet, buttery notes that jump out of the glass with Arran's other bourbon single-cask bottlings and when the sample of cask 1554 arrived, we wasted no time in seeing if it was truly up to scratch... and we were not disappointed. So once it was bottled (you can see our video here) we picked up 15 cases and managed to tesselate them into Joel's mother's car. Needless to say, she gets a free bottle!

The bottling will be available today from online malt'sters - extraordinaires Master Of Malt priced at £48.95 + p+p.

Us with 'miniatures' of the CS&CO bottling

Now Joel and I are not in the business of 'the hard sell' - (the picture above will give you an idea of this!) This project has, to be honest, been a lot of fun and it was a really fantastic process to see that initial sample become the reality of being bottled and labelled. We're proud of this whisky and whether anyone actually decides to grab a bottle, we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do.

We sat down last week with a dram each and tried to see if we had the same tasting notes. Of course our results, like most were fairly subjective, but for the first time, we thought it might be interesting to publish them both side by side.

Caskstrength & Carry On - Isle Of Arran - Single Cask Bottling - Cask no: 1554 - Date filled: 15/12/1998 - Bottled 16/5/11 - 92 bottles - 49.9%

Joel's notes:

Nose: Warm buttered hot cross bun, butterscotch, lemon bonbons, some green tea and chamois leather. There is also a hint of the smell you get when opening a box of liquorice. With water: vanilla and white chocolate are enhanced with a touch of lemon torte giving real zest. Freshly cut ginger.

Palate: Digestive biscuit with a milk chocolate layer; steamed, crunch fresh green oriental vegetables with a drizzle of soy sauce. Toffee ice cream. With water: crème brulee infused with basil; rosemary and cardamom. Slight hints of freshly crushed sea salt. Tonka bean.

Finish: Custard cream biscuits, real lemon juice, fresh kiwi fruit right at the back of the palate. With water the finish gives an increase in lemon (light limoncello), grapefruit juice, gooseberry and white apple juice. A hint of quince jelly.

Neil's notes:

Nose: Initially, buttery with dairy fudge, a slight mossy note, some tart under-ripe plums, lemon zest and toasted pastry- rather like a tart tatin. Chopped hazel nuts. Given 5 minutes in the glass, the sweet fresh bourbon notes develop alongside the butter. With water: a distinctly tropical fruit note begins to develop, like a bag of Wine Gums, coupled with a hint of sweet wine (Gewürztraminer) and oriental sliced ginger.

Palate: Very fruity and sweet. Orange Rowntree's Fruit Gums, more of the buttery fudge, leading into gooseberries, chopped almonds and a touch of Battenburg marzipan. With water: The chopped nuts come to the fore, followed by more of the marzipan and sweet wine.

Finish: Lingering green orchard fruit, under-ripe pears, green apples and greengages. Light summery and sweet, with a returning touch of the bourbon influence.

If you fancy a bottle, then click on the following link: Caskstrength Arran

And if anyone was wondering, we're not selling the 2 bottles used in the picture above, for the obvious reason... ;-)

Slainte!

Neil + Joel

When will this tour end? The car smells of burning hair.

Excuse the tardiness readers. As you will have seen from our Islay adventure, we hit the road like it was the last trip on earth and by the end of our 14 days away from home, we began to resemble the characters from Sideways. As we arrived back at our various homesteads, the mileometer read 1750- a substantial number on its own, but it is a misleading figure, when you consider that was 1750 miles over Islay's innumerable potholes, in the torrential rain and gale force winds, with 17 cases of whisky packed into every orifice - the car's, not our's fortunately.

It was a testing time for the sanity of Caskstrength. But we came out fighting, tougher than ever and determined to do the whole thing again next year, with added zeal. A few days away from our computers have done us the power of good.

Our final leg of Feis Ile 2011 took us to Arran and their open day, which was sensibly scheduled on the Sunday after the Feis Ile final fling and by the number of people we recognised there, a shrewd move from this smart forward thinking distillery. We'd visited Arran last year and the sun was blazing, but this time, alas the Islay weather front had been carried over and our ferry crossing was particularly sketchy. Joel and I have never particularly suffered from the ill effects of a cruel sea, but the crossing from Claonaig to Lochranza (just 2 cars braved the trip, inc. our whisky-laden automobile) was arse-clenchingly unnerving. At one point, the car looked to be lifting onto 2 wheels, as the small ferry yawed violently.

Were we thinking of our own safety? Of course not! We had a cargo full of Feis Ile bottles. "No matter what happens, save the whisky, Joel," I commanded. "And should we go down, pass the sad news onto Mrs Caskstrength and my faithful companion Bobby (who despite wearing a bowtie, is actually a ships cat from the seaside town of Poole.)

We made it, just about intact, but with the hearty cooked breakfast we enjoyed earlier almost paying our tonsils a return visit. What we needed was a stiff measure of something to settle our stomachs and there was only one dram on our minds.

Caskstrength have their very first celebratory whisky!!

About a year ago we thought we'd put our money where our mouse is and save up the cash to buy a cask of something. Nothing too big, but something fun to celebrate Caskstrength turning 3 years old. The good folks at Arran had just what we were looking for and before we knew it, Cask 1554 was being drawn from the warehouse for the last time and sent for filling. It yielded just 92 bottles, which were eagerly waiting to be collected from the distillery...

The Arran we selected follows in the tradition of the distillery's wonderfully light, buttery, fruity character and is a first fill bourbon cask, filled in 1998. In the coming weeks we'll be revealing more details about it and what our plans are - but until then, here's a sneaky video we shot from the distillery.

with the car safely loaded with 15 cases of Caskstrength & Carry On Arran tessellating perfectly, we settled down for a masterclass from Arran's roving ambassador and all-round top chap, Andy Hogan. In the distillery's Crofter's Cottage, we sat down to try several expressions from Arran's 15 year history, including the 14yo, the recent Machrie Moor peated expression, an Amarone wine finish, a great sherry cask bottling and this year's Arran festival bottling.

Andy had paired up locally produced food with each whisky - fresh oysters with the 14yo (a pairing, which I decided against trying, for reasons you can view here) but the whole experience really bought home just how good Arran have become at producing a robust, distinct spirit, yet with so much lightness and character. Here's our pick from the bunch:

Arran- Machrie Moor - lightly peated single malt - 46%

Nose: Very light, heathery peat, fresh apricot skin, brine and wet sand. With a touch of water, a hint of mossy, wet woodland emerges.

Palate: Fresh pine, crisp salad, dried apricots, with an underlying dose of pineapple chunks and fresh coconut.

Finish: Light balsamic notes, more fragrant pineapple and a Lapsang tea flavour, gently decaying, as the palate dries.

Overall: A really interesting change of direction for this decidedly 'non-peated' distillery, which certainly doesn't aim to emulate its neighbours. Machrie Moor is a solid whisky and a sign of promising things to come, with more peated expressions on the cards.

Arran - Single sherry cask bottling- Distilled 1998 - Bottled 2010 - 57.1%

Nose: Wonderfully rich and fruity, with boozy cherry notes (Griottines), dark polished wood, cracked leather and mint notes. There is also some wonderfully buttery/creamy notes one would usually associate with a bourbon cask. This really has it all. Very impressive.

Palate: Again, surprisingly light and tropical, with mango, coconut, butter toffee and apricots hitting the palate first, followed up by the usual darker dried fruits and oakiness associated with a sherry butt.

Finish: More of the tropical fruit, but slightly aged, less vibrant and richer- reminiscent of some older Bowmore bottlings, but without the massive lingering depth.

Overall: A real standout here. I bought a bottle of this last time I was on the island and foolishly gave it to someone as a present, without trying it. Now I have, I immediately regret being so generous. Can we squeeze another bottle in the car Joel? Please??

Finally, the Arran open day bottling - we luckily got to try last year's bottling on our previous visit, so it'll be interesting to see how this one stacks up against it...

Arran - Open day 2011 bottling - Bourbon cask - Cask No: 104 - distilled 1995 - bottled 2011 - 200 bottles - 52%

Nose: Orange marmalade, hazelnuts, white flowers, hints of buttery toffee, fruity sweet bourbon, marzipan, vanilla and lemon zest. Classic first fill bourbon. Cracking.

Palate: Orange juice again, maple syrup, mandarin segments, hints of lime cordial and creamy barley. A very broad array of flavours.

Finish: Lime pickles, hints of vanilla and fresh pine.

Overall: A nose to totally die for, everything you'd look for in fresh bourbon casks. Very similar to last year's open day bottling, perhaps lacking some of the richer chocolate malt notes but still a damn fine bottling nonetheless. It is more expensive at £125. If this is beyond your price range, we'd recommend going for the equally excellent sherry cask bottling.

Stay tuned for more Arran news, as we un-pack, number and label 92 bottles and try to find somewhere to put them.

Are we having fun yet? You bet we are...

Happy New Year Folks...

Joel and I would like to wish you all a very happy new year - and here's to a very prosperous 2011.

2010 was indeed a superb year in the world of whisky (with trips to Arran and Islay being definite highlights for us) and here at Caskstrength HQ, we're hatching fiendish plans of how to make the site bigger, better and even more tasty. As we near our 3rd anniversary, (hey, we're nearly a whisky!) we've got a few exciting announcements and updates, which we'll be revealing over the next few months. But until then, thanks to all of you for reading and supporting us and we hope that 2011 brings you some truly sensational drams.

Slainte!

Neil + Joel

Staycation

Some days you just have to let go. Some days are for indulging. It’s why we save money. It’s also why up-scaling exists. Would Johnnie Walker Blue Label be the whisky it is, if it weren’t for the Red, Black, Green and Gold? Would Premiership football be “Premier” if there weren't 4 other levels of professional football in this country? Life is all about context. And in this bloggers case, it’s holiday time!

However, what would holiday be without work to create the contrast? That constant barrage of voicemails. The red light blinking on your blackberry as if the device will explode imminently. The pile of paperwork on your desk climbing every higher towards the sky. Holiday is a time to forget this all, to put it to one side and to relax.

This year I find myself in Cornwall, one of the most beautiful parts of the United Kingdom. Long sandy beaches, rolling fields and (usually) sunshine have combined with a weak pound, economic downturn and general belt-tightening, to ensure that the staycation is the holiday of choice for a larger numbers of Britons than ever before.

Our destination this year is the North Coast and a small village near Newquay (a place often favoured by stag parties and surfers, for those readers outside of the UK). The biggest quandary that befalls me when packing my suitcase is not which shorts I should pack, how many jumpers is too many or whether or not to take the snorkel, but “which whisky shall I take with me”. With limited space I opted for a hipflask full of Highland Park 12 Year Old. It was open, in the cabinet and seemed to fulfil all the obvious criteria (Will it be delicious and cooling on a hot day on the beach? Yes. Will it be warming and soothing when I’m stuck in doors due to torrential rain, depressed that I stayed in England? Yes.) so away I went with some nice Scotch in my luggage.

The highlight of the trip was a lunch, booked in honour of Ma Joel’s 60^th Birthday (Happy Birthday Mum!), at Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant, imaginatively called Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant – clever huh! – in Padstow, just along the coast from where were based.

Now, I love cooking. But Rick Stein I am not. The only Michelin stars I have are on the car I drove to Cornwall in. But I do love food (who doesn’t? You see that on people’s profiles on things like Facebook “I like food”. No! Really!? “I like comedy” No shit, Sherlock. Tell me something I didn’t already know.) and what better way to provide total holiday contrast from my usual coco-pops breakfast / prêt sandwich lunch / chicken and bacon salad dinner, then to treat oneself to some proper food, from a proper chef?

The lunch was excellent (sardines in a herb and parmesan crust for starter, pan fried ray wing with béarnaise sauce for main and some chocolate thing for pudding, since you asked) and you get three courses for around the same price as a bottle of Ardbeg 10 Year Old. Not at all bad, really. But I was on holiday. With my Highland Park 12 at home, I needed some whisky. Some good whisky. No... some really good whisky.

My usual experience of restaurants, particularly seafood restaurants, and whisky is pretty poor. I wasn’t expecting much when I asked to see the spirits list. But I was shocked to see the following listed:

Arran 10 Year Old

Glenmorangie 10 Year Old

Laphroaig 10 Year Old

Talisker 10 Year Old

Okay.... Okay... it’s all good so far. Just back from Arran and as good as the 10 Year Old is, I’ll give it a miss for now. Glenmo, Laphroaig and Tally 10’s. Na. Not here. Not now.

I kept reading.

Tullibardine 1993 Port Wood Finish

Bruichladdich 16 Year Old Sauternes Finish

Er, okay. That’s a bit unexpected. But we’ll keep going.

Macallan 18 Year Old

Ardbeg 1990 (Nam Biest)

Nice! I’m erring towards the Ardbeg to finish this cracking meal off, but let’s just finish reading the full list.

Port Ellen Provenance 25 Year Old

Bowmore Old & Rare 25 Year Old

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we have a winner! Or two. It looks like it’s going to be a straight slug out between the Port Ellen and the Bowmore and weighing in at two pounds per dram lighter, your Champion for the day is: the Port Ellen.

With a large smile on my face, I ordered up a measure. The perfect way to end a perfect meal:

Port Ellen – 1982 – 25 Years Old – Provenance – Sherry Casks No. 4452 & 4453 – 46% ABV

Nose- A good slug of peat mixed in with deep, rich woods. If there was a definition of "rich", this would be it. The wood notes range from pine to oak with everything in between. Lovely stuff.

Palate- The palate tastes old but with plenty of energy, coming though with orange quarters and dark chocolate which adds to the delicate peat smoke.

Finish- A big whack of peat, followed by hot and spicy red chillies, followed by orange peel, coffee and those beautifully balanced wood spices. Marmalade at the death.

Overall- I have no idea how long the restaurant had this bottle, but I bet this is all sold out now. And the world is a poorer place for it.

Holidays are a wonderful thing, but I’m back to reality now with deadlines, rush hours and travel cards to buy. I will once again be returning to the humble sandwich lunch and home cooked supper. Sadly my life doesn’t allow me to live in beautiful Cornwall and I can’t afford to eat at a posh restaurant every day of the week. But the one fleck of bright light, the one area I can take away is the whisky. I may never have that Port Ellen ever again. I certainly don’t have whisky of that quality and rarity after ever meal. But I can be happy with what I have. And right now, I’m here finishing off my holiday allocation of Highland Park 12 and you know what? On a Sunday evening, in the quiet before work tomorrow, it tastes like the rarest, most expensive whisky known to man, because it’s my whisky, my time, my moment.