Arran 12 Yr. Licence to Distill Single Malt Scotch Whisky

The nose shows the character of the barrel finish with aromas of yellow plum, heather, sweet caramel, barrel char, toasted and salted nuts, pepper, and warm baking spices. The palate holds its 51.8% ABV quite well with flavors of pepper and spices up front that give way to caramel, nuts, and sea spray with just there fruit notes. D&M Tasting Notes 100% Finished in Palo Cotaldo Sherry Cask.

This is Arran’s second Masters of Distilling release. If you can mentally take yourself back to before the pandemic in 2019: the upcoming James Bond film was all the rage for Anglophiles, and Arran was looking to celebrate their master distiller James MacTaggart’s 12th year at the distillery. To put forth a release that was different from what he had undertaken with his first Masters of Distilling release in 2017, James had taken a bit of a trip to Jerez in Spain and selected 20 odd barrels that previously held Palo Cortado sherry. (A bit of an aside, but Palo Cortado is the very rare type of sherry that starts off salty and bright under a live layer of yeast and then turns dark and nutty after that yeast becomes inactive.) All of the whisky in this release came from 2006, the year before James joined Arran. Then, the world changed and the Bond film was delayed. As a result this excellent expression of Arran malt was largely kept in bonded warehouses in the UK. After tasting this whisky we were happy to jump through the needed hoops to get this all for you. Michael Kennel, D&M