Whisky Focus - Arran Distillers Lay Down A Blend Of Arran & Lagg New Make Whisky Spirit

The creative folks at Isle of Arran Distillers have revealed that they have laid down to mature a blend of their Arran and Lagg distilleries new make whisky spirit.

It isn't at all unusual to see blended malt whiskies containing a blend of single malts from two or more distilleries but when these whiskies are brought together they have usually already been matured for a minimum of three years and individually could be called a single malt by themselves.

What the Director of Operations & Production for Lagg and Arran Whisky Distilleries, James MacTaggart, has done is create a unique Blended Malt by filling casks with a mix of new make spirit from both their new Lagg distillery which only went into production in 2019 on the south side of the Isle of Arran and the now firmly established Arran distillery at Lochranza at the north end of the island.

What lead to this innovative move was in March this year the two distilleries shut down production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the distilleries began production again on 11th May after this short period of closure, the first runs of new make spirit from each distillery were vatted together before being filled to cask.

This precious mix, combining both the heavily-peated spirit of Lagg and the un-peated spirit of Arran, was filled into Bourbon Barrels, Sherry Hogsheads and Sherry Butts at their Arran Distillery at Lochranza. These unusual casks will now slumber on the island until the time is right for bottling as a future Blended Malt.

This is a particularly interesting project to mark this unique moment in time. As an island whisky producer, Isle of Arran Distillers is in the rare position of owning a lowland and a highland distillery both based on one island off the west coast of Scotland. The DNA of the two distilleries is inextricably linked through their island connection and the flavour profile of the future Blended Malt Whisky is bound to create something very special with which to remember this period in history.

Obviously it will be a few years before we will get to taste the result of this creative blend of Lagg and Arran, in fact we still have sometime to wait until we taste the first peaty Lagg whisky but meanwhile the current Arran core range is available from specialist online whisky retailers such as The Whisky Exchange, The Whisky Shop and Master of Malt
 

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