Whisky Discovery #144

Isle of Arran 'The Eagle' 1999 (46% abv, OB, Distilled 1999, Bottled 2012 70cl)
Island Single Malt
Circa £48.00 70cl

Icons of Arran No. 4 The Golden Eagle

I remember when the Isle of Arran Distillers released this back in February 2012. I saw the advertisements and the tweets before I had even tasted a whisky from this distillery. I tried to get a sample from the distillery at the time. Although unsuccessful with getting a taste of the Golden Eagle, I was very fortunate to be sent a sample of their 10 Year Old and their 14 Year Old.

I was blown away by this offer of samples and started to find out more about this distillery, and the' Icons of Arran' range, of which this is the fourth and final expression from this series. It all started four years ago with the release of 'The Peacock' which received great reviews and is highly sought after. The following year 'The Rowan Tree' was released and then last year 'The Westie' which I believe, you can still find a bottle of if you look hard!

The Golden Eagle is a special edition bottling limited to just 6,000 worldwide, and after looking out for it at the Stratford upon Avon Whisky Festival (and not seeing it) was determined to make this my official June purchase. I almost left it too late as a number of retailers had sold out, and it wasn't available from the distillery any longer. After some frantic telephoning to a number of independent retailers I found myself a bottle just in time!

This single malt was drawn from a combination of 14 bourbon barrels and 7 sherry Hogsheads, all selected by Master Distiller James MacTaggart from the 1999 distillation. It was bottled earlier this year and released in February.

As with all of the other 'Icons of Arran' it has been named after something synonymous with the Isle of Arran and/or it's distillery and this has been named for and dedicated to, the pair of Golden Eagles who nest behind the distillery in the mountain above Lochranza.

This 13 year old single malt has been bottled at 46% abv and is naturally coloured and non chill-filtered

So what did I think?

I opened this on the Friday evening it arrived and tweeted about it to a few friends who were interested in what I thought. I spent my time getting to know this and nosed it a number of times before tasting it.

On the nose I tweeted; Lemony vanilla with a sherry fruity notes, kiwi fruit, lovely nose! There's peaches too and pink grapefruit. It is almost a tropical fruit salad, with vanilla, caramel and some nuttiness too.

It's quite similar on the palate, but there is a little spiciness too. Creamy buttery vanilla with some great citrus notes. I also got the slightest aniseed tang to it too, yes it is delicious!

The finish seems quite short, sweet and peppery at the end, and a little nutty dryness.

I'm so glad I managed to find a bottle of this having missed out earlier releases, it is a lovely drop of whisky and if you can find a bottle you really should snap it up, if you don't like it you can always send it to me - where it will be gratefully received.