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...

Join Us For A Very Special Tasting

Hello all, we're sure that like us, you were shocked and deeply saddened to see the devastation in Japan in the wake of the earthquake and resulting Tsunami. There are a number of really worthwhile charity organisations that you can donate to- including the Spirit Of Unity bottling, released in conjunction with some of Scotland's leading independent craft distillers and spearheaded by the Arran distillery. If you can grab a bottle of this, we urge you to do so- £59.99 + p&p and available from Royal Mile Whiskies and Loch Fyne Whiskies.

Caskstrength have teamed up with The Japan Society for a very special tasting of Japanese whisky at one of London's most luxurious private member's club, Home House on Monday 18th April.

Joel & myself will be showcasing 5 sensational whiskies- Ichiro's Malt -Mizunara Oak Cask, Yamazaki 12yo (with a twist!) Hakushu Heavily Peated, Hakushu 12yo and Hibiki 17yo. In addition, there will be authentic Japanese cuisine provided, courtesy of Tsuru, musical accompaniment in a 50's style from crooner sensation Gary Driscoll, plus a raffle, containing some other cracking Japanese malts and assorted goodies.

Tickets are £25 (with all the proceeds going to charity) and spaces strictly limited to 40 places. They can be purchased directly from the Japan Society's website, or by emailing

events@playforjapan.com

for more information, click on the flyer below:

Hope to see you there!!

N & J

x

Arran Adventure - Part 2 "The Eagle has landed"

We woke on Day 2 of our brief trip to Arran to a wonderful view of the coastline from the attic room of our B&B. The previous evening was spent munching fish and chips in the restaurant of a nearby hotel, drinking the local Arran Ale (a pint of Squirrel anyone?) and playing “guess the dram” with a selection of whiskies from the bar. And what better way to awake than to a view of the northern Arran coastline and a full cooked breakfast!

Our first appointment (aside from the eggs and bacon) was a distillery tour. Arran is the third most visited distillery in Scotland. A remarkable achievement for an island distillery and it highlights the enormous possibilities of this venture. A specially built cafe-cum-art gallery, The Eagles Nest houses the distillery shop and a small tasting room where tours start. We were lucky enough to taken on our tour by distillery manager James MacTaggart, an Ilach who spent over 30 years working at Bowmore before making the short hop across from Islay to head up the production at Arran. From the Eagles Nest, James took us across some fields to the local stream which runs down from Loch na Davie,where all of the distillery’s water is sourced from. With only three ingredients, the water source is always a point of pride for any distillery and this small brook which feeds Arran is clean, clear and beautiful.

James, playing the Malt 'Timpani'!

From here we made our way, via the barley store (with its ingenious weight system of measurement) and mill into the heart of the distillery itself. A small operation, Arran is producing 750,000 litres per year and has just two stills housed alongside the single mash tun and washbacks in one main space. Brewing had just begun again after a 3-week break but sadly the distillation was still a day or so away, so no chance to try a cheeky white dram! We did get to try a glass of '2nd Water' from the Underback - wow! Warm, sweet, and malty. You could bottle this stuff as a health tonic...

However, our next trip was into the warehouses. Arran has the facility to store some of their production at the distillery site and a new warehouse was recently added, where each cask is individually slotted to allow for easy access to all casks. Fortunately for us, James needed to check the progress of one of their earliest casks, from 1995 and oh!... how fortuitous for us that we happened to be there too.

Arran – Cask Sample – Filled 1995 – Ex 1st fill Bourbon Cask - 52%

Nose: Incredible fruit, vanilla and fudge notes. The colour of the whisky (deep amber) indicates the level of quality wood the distillery is using and it shows. With water, a real hidden depth begins to unravel from within the glass. Dark chocolate notes, into creamy white chocolate, nutmeg spices and spicy /malty rye notes all come to the fore.

Palate: An Incredibly oily mouthfeel, with lemon zest, more rich vanilla, big bourbon influence and a lighter malt note developing on the death. Despite the brilliance of the cask, the distillery character has so much room to breathe.

Finish: Drying spiced notes, sweet chocolate and a touch of pepper/salt.

Overall: With casks like this at their disposal, it is no wonder why the 14yo has matured into such an interesting beast. It all bodes incredibly well for the future and the proposed 18yo expression, which we can't wait to try. It's probably some way off yet though!

As we gazed longingly around the warehouse (including a future king's cask!), James came back with something very interesting indeed. A wee sample of peated Arran whisky. Utterly delicious, it certainly isn’t Arran’s intention to take on its island neighbours on the other side of Campbeltown, as their core distillery character is now flourishing under the 10 and 14 year old banners, but this will add another interesting profile to their growing portfolio of excellent fringe bottlings, when it’s eventually released -watch this space.

You can pick up two different single cask bottles in the distillery shop (and online) – one bourbon cask, one sherry cask, both in the region of 200 bottles only for the utterly amazing price of around £45. Value for money? You can bet your bottom dollar on it!

Our time at Arran was drawing to a close and, after a cheese and ham sandwich back in the Eagles Nest and some wonderful stories from James about his experiences in the business, it was time to head back to the CalMac ferry port and our train home to London.

Waving goodbye to another magical Scottish island, we grabbed a map and started planning our trip back. It’s frighteningly easy from Glasgow to access this island, which makes it such an attractive visitors destination. Now tourists have another great reason to visit: the whisky.

A huge thanks to everyone at Arran Distillery for making our trip so wonderful.

Arran Adventure - Part 1

A visit to a new distillery always fills us with such trepidation and excitement. What are we to expect? Do they do things differently? And more importantly, what will we get to try??

Well earlier this week, us Caskstrengthers got a superb opportunity to visit The Arran Distillery , whose new operation is now in the full swing of things. We say new, despite the fact that they have been up and running since 1995, but this is of course a mere infancy, when compared to the more established west coast island distilleries, or neighbouring Campbeltown.

Our initial expectations of Arran were fairly limited, as we began the first leg of our trip on the train up to Glasgow. Both Joel and I had tried the Founder's Reserve bottling, produced in 2001, which was very youthful tasting indeed and didn't really give many solid indications of where the single malt was heading. In fact, this was one of the very first reviews we had ever done for Caskstrength, back in March 2008!

We also had a small sample of some new make spirit from 1995, blessed with a highly fruity/floral aroma. But our hosts, our good friend Andy Hogan, Arran's North American Brand Ambassador and Distillery Manager James MacTaggart had lined up a tasting of the most recent bottlings from the distillery's core range; the 10yo and brand new 14yo, as well as some superb single cask expressions and a rare treat- the 15yo Anniversary bottling, produced for this year's open day.

Arriving at the distillery, one is immediately taken with the truly beautiful scenery, which surrounds the site. Goat Fell and Brodick Castle are right on the doorstep, so anyone who enjoys the real Scottish outdoors should plan a trip, taking in the distillery on the way. It is also possible to take a walk up to Loch na Davie, the distillery's water source, but as time was tight on this visit, we made tentative plans to return soon, dressed in full gorse-proof tweeds and heavy brogues.

With the sun blazing down on our outdoor tasting table, we got stuck into some scrumptious dramming...and boy, were we in for a shock...

The overall house style of the distillery is one of a light, fruity and vanillery aroma, with a salty undertone using a mixture of predominantly fresh bourbon casks and sherry hoggies/butts. Our first gleaming glass was the standard 10yo, which proved to be anything but 'standard'.

Isle Of Arran - 10 yo – (50% refill sherry 25% fresh sherry 25% fresh bourbon) 46%

Nose: Light and zesty, fruit sherbet, vanilla custard, absolutely no nose prickle. With water, the fruitiness (fresh crisp green apples) comes through in abundance.

Palate: Sherry makes itself apparent, a hint of dry vermouth, but still maintaining the vanilla sweetness. Some gentle spices, mix with a gentle maltiness.

Finish: Very fresh, green beans and more light notes. Some salted capers with water.

Overall: Absolutely wonderful. Light, and perfectly summery. Although this shares a lot with the classic Lowland style of whisky making it is refreshingly different, giving Arran its own regionality. (£32)

Next up- the brand new 14yo release, which was so new, the distillery shop was still waiting for its allocation!!

Isle of Arran - 14yo – 46%

Nose: Summer pudding!! Fresh strawberries, mint, malty bread, raspberries, and vanilla. Given time, some banana toffee and fresh apricots emerge. With water, even more vanilla custard.

Palate: A rich mouthfeel, Crème Brulee, licorice, a little pepper, but backed up by the fresh fruit.

Finish: Slightly salty/briney, but then back into the fruits – hints of green banana and a little creaminess. Surprisingly lengthy for a light style.

Overall: Another cracker, with more sweet fruity goodness. This bottling highlights just how well the whisky is maturing. Stay tuned for an 18yo in the future!! (£38)

After a couple of cask samples including a single cask sherry bottling, (much drier, but still retaining that wonderful fresh fruit and vanilla) and a Calvados cask (baked apples, butter and spice... think Tarte Tatin) it was time to sample the distillery's prized Anniversary bottling. And after the 2 previous drams, our expectations were running high! The casks used to produce this bottling were 3 of the very first casks in the distillery's inventory, specially selected by James for their exceptional balance.

Isle Of Arran - 15yo Anniversary bottling– 600 bottles from a vatting of 3, 1^st fill Bourbon casks– 51.4% – (Heaven Hill Casks) - Released at the 2010 Arran Distillery open day

Nose: Pannacotta time! A sensational vanilla and summer fruits nose. Absolutely beautiful. Fresh, vibrant, yet with incredible balance. With water, a hint of waxiness (ala Clynelish, but not as huge) and a peppery rye note. Clearly, the casks which went into this bottling were absolutely top draw indeed.

Palate: Rich, malty, very complex, the bourbon influence is devastatingly apparent. Cinnamon, coconut, that wonderful vanilla, mint and then some milk chocolate.

Finish: The fruit and fresh bourbon notes give a spiciness which lingers for a few minutes. This is 'second dram stuff', without a doubt!!

Overall: If you can, get a bottle of this now- there are only a handful left, but it is undoubtedly a landmark bottling for the distillery- some of the oldest casks of the distillery stocks have gone into this and it is a true time capsule for the rise and rise of Arran's wonderful whisky making. (Only available from the distillery in person, or via mail order here) (£95)

Part 2 of our Arran trip will be posted shortly, where we got a chance to see the distillery at work, as well as a behind-the-scenes tour of the warehouses and the faint whiff of a familiar friend at work...