J's Whisky Diary

For something a little different this week, I'm going to do a side-by-side with two products from The Arran distillery in Lochranza on the Isle of Arran. The distillery opened in 1995 and has operated continuously since then; unusually, it remains independently owned and operated. The two products I'll be sampling today are an unpeated 18 year old single malt whisky and an Amarone cask finished single malt with no age statement. For those unfamiliar with the wine, Amarone is a kind of dry, red Italian wine, produced in Valpolicella out of dried grapes. The drying of the grapes concentrates the sugars and flavors in the grape and produces a strong (15% and up) and distinctly flavored wine. Production of Amarone is painstaking and risky and the resulting wine is comparatively rare and expensive. The Arran Malt 18 year old is sherry cask finished and bottled at 92 proof. The malt pours a clear yellow with gilded highlights. First lifting the glass, it's quite soft on the nos

The Hillrock Estate Distillery, located in the Hudson Valley, NY, take their name quite seriously. Established on a stunning--well, estate --complete with a mansion built in 1806, Hillrock describe themselves as a "field to glass" distillery; in addition to growing their own heritage barley, they floor malt, smoke, and kiln it in house. The distillery is staffed by a team of industry veterans including Master Distiller Dave Pickerell, of Maker's Mark and Whistle Pig fame. In addition to the painstaking attention paid to their barley, Hillrock also use a solera aging technique for their Bourbon. You can read more about that process here , but it is a complex and difficult technique which allows the average age of the spirit produced to grow continuously over time via fractional blending; the longer a solera is in place, the older and more complex the bottled spirit becomes. Presumably, this process is somehow made compatible with the legal requirement that Bourbon be aged

Old Grand Dad is a brand of straight bourbon whiskeys distilled by Beam-Suntory in Kentucky, notable for the higher percentage of rye compared to the standard Beam mash bill. The brand is named for Basil Hayden Sr., the famed distiller. Old Grand Dad is bottled at three different proofs; 80, 100 (bonded), and 114. While the 80 proof offering is entirely forgettable, I have long prized "Bonded OGD" as an accessible, classic, and extremely affordable bourbon, providing an introduction for the neophyte, a standby for those "ballin'-on-a-budget," and a terrific base for bourbon cocktails; make a pitcher of juleps for your friends with a bottle of Bonded and you'll be a hero to anyone who can remember what they tasted like. In comparison to the simplicity and accessibility of the bonded offering, 114 proof requires a bit more of its audience. This is by no means a "fine" spirit, no age statement is given, aside from the "straight bourbon" de