Arran Amarone Cask Finish (700 ml)

When Harold Currie revived legal distillation on Arran in 1995 — ending a 160-year island silence — he built the house on a deliberate transgression: an unpeated, fruit-forward malt in a category dominated by maritime smoke. That clean new make, collected at ~68% ABV from tall-necked copper pot stills with long lyne arms and shell-and-tube condensers, is the canvas onto which the Amarone Cask Finish is painted.

The spirit originates at Lochranza Distillery, Glen Eason Biorach ('Valley of the Sharp Waterfalls'), where water descends through six falls of the Easan Biorach burn, filtered through granite-dominant terrain on the northern side of the Highland Boundary Fault. That granite geology strips the water of mineral hardness, producing a soft, clean charge that amplifies the fruity congeners developed during 60–75-hour fermentations in Oregon pine washbacks using Kerry M yeast.

Primary maturation in refill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks is followed by a finish in ex-Amarone di Valpolicella casks — vessels that previously held wine made from appassimento-dried Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara grapes, leaving behind concentrated dried-cherry, dark chocolate, and bitter-herb residues that graft onto Arran's citrus-and-orchard-fruit core. Bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill filtered, with no caramel colouring added — a non-negotiable house standard across virtually the entire range.

The Amarone finish is among the more structurally assertive in Arran's wine-cask portfolio, pushing the malt toward a darker, more tannic register than the distillery's signature brightness alone would suggest.