Arran, Sauternes Cask Finish, 50% abv.

Arran released several cask finishes over the years, with a very diverse portfolio that includes finishes in sherry, port, amarone, and madeira to name a few. Just goes to show Arran is willing to experiment and must be making a ton of spirit to be able to risk such releases.

Nose: potent white wine, with time its tropical citrus and vanilla, with the vanilla getting stronger with each whiff, toast, plum slushee. After several sips, all the aromas mellow out significantly.

Palate: moderate body, a little thick, initial palate is light, mid palate gets stronger and sharp, wood, citrus seasoning without the sweet elements, back palate is vanilla, toast, chemically treated wood, shoe polish. After several sips, the flavors converge to a mellowed sharp and sour wood, with a good amount of sweetness playing in the background.

Finish: moderate, a dry wood type of aftertaste, quite sweet, a little numb for some reason.

Dry glass: fruit wax.

I admit I didn't expect much going in since it's Arran and I'm not a big fan of Sauternes cask fiinishes as I've always found strange, sour flavors in their tastings. This one was different. I liked everything in the beginning, but everything died out pretty quickly. The nose was very good in the beginning, but almost disappeared a few sips in. Same with the flavors. There wasn't much going on with the finish. A missing body. Overall quite sweet. I thought it was weird that a 46% abv would taste a little more, perhaps because I had a smokey cocktail previously. Had this at Black Bar (formerly Mark T), Seoul, South Korea.

Grade: C

Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.51 ± 0.32 on 14 reviews
Malt maniacs, 80 points on 1 review for 2010
Thewhiskeyjug, Josh Peters, B

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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