The Arran Circle Cask 42 Limited Edition (46%, OB, Cask 42, 381 Bottles, 2007)

Whisky Review

• Category: Island single malt scotch whisky
• Origin: Arran Distillery
• Bottling: The Arran Circle Cask 42 bottled 17/10/07
• ABV: 46%
• Cost: ?

What they say:

Bottled 17/10/07, this is a single (bourbon?) cask of indeterminate age. This was from bottle 359 of 381 at outturn of 46% ABV.

What I say:

Thanks to Tom @ Toms Whisky Reviews for the sample of this elusive cask – you can read Tom’s review here. From what I can gather The Arran Circle single cask bottlings were officially produced by the distillery. Arran have previously released a cask 42 which happened to be a 9 year old bourbon cask, distilled 28/05/2001 and bottled on exactly 10 days before this one on 7/10/2007 according to whiskybase – leading me to suspect this cask 42 was either from a different year (casks usually numbered in sequential order/year starting at 1 each year i.e. 1/2016 being the first of 2016). This bottling may well have also been named after i.e. the 42 cask bottled for The Arran Circle label – in short who knows this is all just speculation so lets get on to the whisky!!

Colour:

Dark champagne gold (5/20), numerous medium-sized tears and legs, oily

Nose:

Chalky and dusty, vanilla essence and fairy (sponge) cakes, slight acetone/solvent and plastic – like acetate, new pencil case, more fruity esters pear, apple, peach, a hint of zesty orange or grapefruit, pear drops sweeties

Taste:

Smooth, sweet honey and golden syrup, less fruity than the nose suggests, a good depth of malted cereal barley is here, quite mealy, biscuit and flapjack are brought to mind, also a little yeasty beer and bread dough/sponge cake mix, floury

Finish:

Short, zesty, white pepper and sweet honey

Overall:

An interesting young(ish) bourbon cask from Arran, drinkable and plenty of character, this reminds me a little of the Lochranza Reserve official bottling lacking only the sherry-influence that receives from its mixed cask heritage

Score: 83/100

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