Arran whisky is the only distillery on Arran Island. It is one of the few independently owned whisky distilleries remained in Scotland and has just turned 18 years old on the 29th of June.
Recently, the distillery sent a visit to Malaysia for the first time. Lucie Stroesser, the Sales Manager for Arran came to meet whisky lovers in Kuala Lumpur through two whisky tastings. “It is delightful to find whisky drinkers here already knew about Arran, even though this is our first,” said Lucie. You might not know, but Arran whisky was first introduced to the Malaysia market as long as 10 years ago.
Lucie Stroesser
Malaysia the first to import in Asia
Shareen Yew, the owner of Single Malt Sdn Bhd discovered the brand during her trip to the island 10 years ago when the distillery was still very young. At that time, they only had 3 year old stock for sale, the first ever legal dram on Arran over 160 years. Upon tasting the dram, the unique taste of Arran caught Shareen’s interest and she asked to distribute the now in popular demand product.
Arran is produced in small batches, with 11 expressions available to date. The oldest commercial bottling is the 16 year old, produced from unpeated malted barley and matured in a combination of the ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks. Only 9,000 bottles are available worldwide. The next down is the 14 year old, which is the most popular expression. It has the 10 year old fresh citrus character and an intense dried fruit and vanilla note. The 10 year old was a landmark bottling for the distillery to coincide with the Queens Award. It went on to win the International Wines and Spirits Competition 2006 then the Gold Medal at the 2012 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Myths and yarns
There are many myths and stories in Arran that give the brand a representative role on that island. One of the stories that initiated an expression to name after is the Machrie Moore. The mythical malt is lightly peated and is made to represent the west coast of the island that lies a windswept and mystical peat bog called Machrie Moor. On the bottle package is the legendary warrior giant Fingals’ dog, Bran. Everytime Fingal took a rest at the circle of stones, he would tie Bran to one of them while he had his meal and Brand would guard. If you ever visit Arran, look out for the stone with a carved. That is said to be Fingal’s Cauldron seat.
Robert Burns
The other famous figure that the island takes pride of is poet Robert Burns who was born in Arran. The brand became the officially endorsed whisky by the Robert Burns Federation in 2001. Robert Burns was a whisky lover and often included the beverage in his poems. However, Robert Burns whisky is not available in Malaysia.
The range of Arran whisky available in Malaysia are the 10, 12, 14 and 16 year old, Non Chill Filtered Amarone and Sauternes Wine Cask Finish, The Machrie Moore and Arran Gold Single Malt Whisky Cream. They are available at Single & Available stores at Plaza Damas and Bangsar Shopping Centre.