Arran : The White Wizard & The Dark Lord

This does sound like a fantasy book review or something, but it is not – I promise you. We’re talking whisky… The Arran malt have released quite a few of single casks in EU, and these two lovely named casks were a part of a special release for NL by Van Wees , which is the NL importer of arran. This happened way back in 2014, and not sure why I missed on this (I have a few friends in NL as you know…). Apparently they were really popular and they sold out very fast over there.  So, The White wizard is of course an ex-Bourbon cask, while the Dark Lord is a sherry cask, smart, right? I was lucky enough to get a taster of these two (thanks mate!)

Arran, The White Wizard, 14yo, 56.7% , € 64.50 , 210 btl 

Nose : Ok… This whisky needs a breather to let some of the spirity notes dissipate, then you’re in for a treat. Excellent bourbon cask obviously,  with lovely vanilla, lemon curd and some exotic fruit on top : kiwi, ripe melon, grapefruit (not quite exotic, but for Scotland it is!)
Palate :Oh my. That’s an exotic fruit basket. Passion fruit, red grapefruit, kiwi. A fine start. Then oodles of vanilla and warm oak wood, icing sugar and coconut. Big palate. Very good.

Finish : red apple and more kiwi melon and grapefruit with the wood backing up.

A lovely nose, and an excellent palate, what a fruity delicious malt this is.

Score: 89/100

Arran The Dark Lord,17 yo , 53.2 % , € 220

Nose: starting with a sweet array of red fruit: berries, blueberries , plums and wood spices , then there’s quite a bit of dried fruit and stewed apple with clove and dime vanilla. Rich thick and sans sulphur.

Palate: big badass palate over here with sweet yet biting fruit, more dates and plums dried of course , sweet dough , Demerara sugar and a hunt of bitter dark chocolate. Cloves , pepper and  cayenne.

Finish: marzipan chocolate, wood spices and nuts.

This one could not be more different than the White Wizard, with a lot of sherry, dried fruit, chocolate and ripe apple. It’s quite clean as a full term sherry whisky no sulphur which is a plus if you’re sensitive. A fine whisky this is, yet it falls short of the bourbon cask, which feels nicer to me, but it’s all a matter of preference. Sherry heads would love this one. I am sure.

Score: 87/100

Many thank to Sjoerd for the samples!