Drawing its name from the small Scottish island where its distillery is based, Arran Single Malt first began production in 1995 and remains the only whisky producer there to this day.

Arran Single Malt has been imported into Malaysia for the last 13 years thanks to its partnership with Single and Available. Its core range – the 10 year-old, 14 year-old, and 18 year-old (all bearing the trademark sweet, fruity and spicy notes) – and even some limited edition bottles are regularly brought over, sometimes in limited quantities of 60-90 bottles at a time, which is to be expected from a distillery of Arran’s size.

Arran’s turning 21 years old at the end of June – if it were a person, it’d be almost old enough to drink its own single malts.

Managing Director Euan Mitchell, who’s been with the company since 2003, has seen it grow from strength to strength. And having worked in the whisky industry almost as long as Arran has been in operation, he’s picked up on some changes in the market.

The decline of age statements
For now this seems truer in Europe than in Asia, but non-age-statement bottlings are becoming more and more popular. “Typically single malts have been defined by age statements,” says Euan, “but more recently this [non-age-statement trend] allows the distiller more flexibility with their stocks and they’re therefore releasing more bottlings without age statements. This is to get the consumer to focus more on the aromas and the taste, to judge the whisky on its merits rather than on its age.” Sometimes age really is just a number.

Label loyalty
Some good news for smaller craft distilleries and breweries: it seems that drinkers these days are much more adventurous than those of days gone by. Euan comments, “We’re moving into a period where consumers are looking for different things. They’re not looking for one consistent global product, it’s different things for different markets… it’s very exciting to see the category being so diverse now, and people are much less stuck on the big brands than they were in the past.”

More women
As expected, women are taking their place among the men as whisky enthusiasts at tasting events across the world. “The image of the old man drinking whisky has really disappeared,” says Euan. “I’ve been selling whisky for 20 years, and the culture shift everywhere has been massive. It’s very much still a male-dominated sector, but now at whisky events all around the world you’re seeing that 20-30 percent of people coming are female.” And not only as consumers but also within the industry itself, where more women are becoming the face of whisky brands – Arran itself has two sales managers, Louisa Young and Lucie Stroesser, who travel the world spreading the word of whisky and “help break down barriers” between women and whisky. Not to mention the untapped market women represent – “I think these whisky companies have realised that they were by-passing 50 percent of the population… and why would you do that?”

Social media
According to Euan, social media is without a doubt the way forward – and for a smaller company like Arran, it’s the ideal way to directly connect with their customers. “People can engage with smaller brands all over the world much more easily, so the sense of being driven by traditional marketing is dead and buried.”

Arran Single Malt is available in Single & Available shop at Ground Floor, Bangsar Shopping Centre.