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Whisky is a complicated business, Highland or Lowland, Speyside or Islay, smoky vs peaty, single cask or single malt, matured or finished, sherry or Bourbon...its enough to have your head spinning before you've even had a dram.
Whisky is a complicated business, Highland or Lowland, Speyside or Islay, smoky vs peaty, single cask or single malt, matured or finished, sherry or Bourbon...its enough to have your head spinning before you've even had a dram.
We've written our blog, Distillery Drop, to break it down for you, we'll highlight one distillery at a time and give you the low down without the jargon and occasional pretentiousness you may encounter in the whisky sphere.
We've written our blog, Distillery Drop, to break it down for you, we'll highlight one distillery at a time and give you the low down without the jargon and occasional pretentiousness you may encounter in the whisky sphere.
We hope to welcome you to a world of history, tradition, culture and enjoyment and give you some fun facts to drop the next time you're enjoying a tipple with friends...
We hope to welcome you to a world of history, tradition, culture and enjoyment and give you some fun facts to drop the next time you're enjoying a tipple with friends...
Distillery Drop No. 1
Distillery Drop No. 1
Arran - Lochranza
Arran - Lochranza
Whisky Style - Highland/Island
Whisky Style - Highland/Island
If you ever find yourself on the west coast of Scotland, a day trip to the Isle of Arran is a must! The ferries run regularly from Ardrossan and you can take your car if you book in advance. The island is easy enough to negotiate on public transport if you check out bus times before setting off - although there are less beautiful places in the world to end up stranded!
Although Arran distillery is relatively new, the Island has a long whisky producing heritage.
Small home stills were banned in the late 18th century so most of them went underground, producing illegal whisky to be smuggled onto the mainland. In 1837 the Island’s last legal distillery closed and this seemed to be the end of Arran’s whisky producing heritage - until 1995, when former Chivas managing director Harold Currie headed up a consortium to build a new distillery at Lochranza at the north of the island.
During the construction of the distillery, a pair of golden eagles built their nest on a cliff near the distillery; since golden eagles are a protected species, construction of the distillery was temporarily halted, but to this day the image of a pair of golden eagles features on their packaging.
Arran whisky is “a clean, sweet dram which is entirely natural and unadulterated…(they) never add caramel or strip flavour out using chill filtration”.
In more recent years they have also started producing a peated expression called Machrie Moor. Parent company Isle of Arran Distillers opened a second distillery, Lagg, in the south of the island in 2019, a nod to the areas distilling history, and the last closed legal distillery.
Lagg will produce a heavily peated whisky as well as apple cider and brandy from apple trees grown on the nearby estate. Recently the Arran range was revamped with clean, modern packaging plus the introduction of new core expressions Barrel Reserve and The Bodega – as the name suggests, a Sherry cask finish.
The distilleries at both Lochranza and Lagg are open for tours and tasting and we highly recommend a visit!
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