Arran 6 Years Old PX Sherry Octave Finish

Arran 6 Years Old PX Sherry Octave Finish – The Octave Project

Category: Island single malt scotch whisky
Origin: Arran distillery
Bottling: A. D. Rattray, The Octave Project
ABV: 55.4%
Cost: £25 for 5 x 3cl

What they say

For this experiment we chose a single Bourbon Barrel from Arran Distillery and divided the matured whisky from inside it between four different Octave casks, retaining one portion of the original whisky for comparison.

Taste the results of our Octave Project with this set of 5x 3cl Little Drams, including a sample from the original Bourbon Barrel and samples from the 4 Octave finishes a PX Sherry, Oloroso Sherry, Rioja and Rum.

Octave project

What I say

Thanks to A.D. Rattray for sending me this Arran octave project set to review.

Composed of 5 x 3cl drams, distilled at Arran and matured in an ex-Bourbon barrel for a minimum of 6 years, before cask finishing in 4x different ‘seasoned’ Octave casks.

This sample was finished in a PX-sherry seasoned Octave.

My tasting notes:

Appearance: Dark bronze/ruby (12/20) quick medium-large legs and medium tears.
Nose: Floral initially, Roses, toffee, chocolate and nut, sweet milk chocolate, Nutella/chocolate and hazelnut paste.
Taste: Light bodied, toffee, muskovado sugar, weak or diluted treacle, black and red berry fruits, blackcurrants, some baking spices, polished highland toffee, hints of liquorice root and aniseed balls.
Finish: Medium-long, blackcurrant and aniseed persist.

Overall

On the face of it this had plenty going for it in terms of aroma’s and flavours, I must admit to preferring PX to Oloroso sherry most of the time. Unfortunately this is still too light-bodied to carry these flavours and any previous character has been obliterated. Sadly this PX finish tasted a little force-matured and this whisky’s backbone too weak to take it.

The Whiskyphiles

Arran 6 Years Old PX Sherry Octave Finish