Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength

About the Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength

Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength is a peated single malt Scotch whisky from the Isle of Arran. The distillery sits on Scotland's west coast, in the Island region, and bottles this one at 56.2%. There is no chill filtration and no added colouring. The name comes from a stretch of moorland on the island's western side. It is a bare, windswept peat bog, and the whisky borrows its character from it. Peated whisky was not always the focus here. The distillery built its name on a bright, fresh house style. Machrie Moor came from the first smoky spirit it ever made. That spirit was distilled at Lochranza, in the north of the island. In 2019 the company moved all peated production south, to the new Lagg distillery. So every bottle of this release belongs to an earlier chapter. Cask strength gives the flavours room to push. Honey and vanilla lead, sweet but never sugary. Behind them sit almond, a malty cereal note, and fresh orchard fruit. Citrus cuts through the middle and keeps it lively. The texture is oily and coats the mouth. Smoke runs underneath rather than over the top. A light woody dryness follows. The finish turns medicinal and salty, like sea air off the moor. The regular Machrie Moor reaches the bottle at a lower strength. Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength keeps the same peated spirit at 56.2%. It goes into the bottle straight from the cask. That extra strength gives the smoke sharper edges. The sweetness also carries further across the palate. Lochranza no longer makes peated spirit, which gives this release a fixed end point. Anyone curious about the island's smoky side should start here.