Arran Barrel Bonfire - Signature Series Edition 2

The Signature Series is a four-part limited edition series that began with Edition 1 'Remnant Renegade' in autumn 2023 and now it is time for Edition 2 'Barrel Bonfire'. This bottling just goes to show how wide the spectrum is of whiskies marketed by the Arran distillery; from light and delicate to heavily peated. 

Over the years, Arran has experimented with different peat levels, from 14 ppm, 20 ppm to 42 ppm (the peat level of this expression). Arran stopped distilling peated whisky at Lochranza in 2017. Today, production of peated whisky takes place at Lagg distillery, located on the south coast of the Isle of Arran.

The Quarter Casks used for this bottling come from a small distillery in Chicago - Koval - which uses these custom-made 115-litre casks to mature their Bourbon before arriving at Arran.

The whisky in this bottling was originally bottled in Bourbon casks in 2012. It matured for almost 5.5 years before being transferred to Koval Quarter Casks in September 2018, where it spent the remaining 5.5 years of its maturation period. During the secondary maturation, the intensity of the heavily peated whisky took on an even more complex and full-bodied character. After all, the smaller the cask, the greater the contact surface between the wood and the spirit. The end result can be called very successful.

Tasting note

Nose

Hazelnuts coated with caramel. Orange peel and abundant vanilla. Rich dry smoke.

Taste

Rich and smooth. mouth-watering, oily and complex. Spicy, cinnamon notes mingle with citrus.

Finish

Spice, citrus, smoke, peat, vanilla, cinnamon, soft, toasty oak.

More about the Arran distillery

The Arran distillery is located in Lochranza, a picturesque village on the northern coast of the Isle of Arran. The distillery is relatively young, established in 1995, but has managed to establish itself in a short time as one of Scotland's best-loved whisky producers.