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...

Founded in 2004, Stranahan's was an early comer to the craft distilling scene, and the first microdistillery to open in Colorado. Stranahan's is named for co-founder George Stranahan, notably also a co-founder of Flying Dog Brewery, which went so far as to provide all the wash for the distillery until adequate brewing equipment could be procured. The distillery was acquired, in 2010, by Proximo Spirits, notable for their distribution of Jose Cuervo in the United States along with ownership of several other "premium" alcohol brands. Stranahan's produce a range of Single Malts, each with different finishing characteristics, including the annual, unique "Snowflake" release available for only one day each year. Today I'm trying the Sherry Cask Finish; this is batch 2 (out of 3, so far), it is non chill-filtered, given an age statement of 4 years, finished in Oloroso Sherry casks, and finally bottled at 94 proof. The malt pours a muted yellow-gold w...

Glendronach is a Highland distillery founded in 1826 near Forgue, the second distillery to be granted license to produce whisky in Scotland. Though the distillery was briefly mothballed 1996, it reopened in 2001 and is now owned and operated by Brown-Forman. It is a stream-fed distillery, with water supplied by the Dronac burn, which runs through the facility. This is a single-cask offering, part of a yearly Limited Release and selected by Master Distiller Billy Walker. While many Scotch single malts are finished in sherry casks, this malt, distilled in 1994, was fully matured in a Pedro Ximenez Sherry puncheon, and bottled in 2015 after 20 years. The 1994 pours a dark, rich amber, with a bright ruby tint, indicating straightaway the hefty age statement and pronounced barrel character. As soon as you lift the glass its clear that the spirit inside is dripping with lavish sherry character; a perfectly oxidative mahogany cherry pie, lively with citrus highlights, warm with the cask s...