arran – Sherry Cask (The Bodega) 55.8% ABV

Happy Whisky Wednesday all!

I hope you’re all having a good week so far and most of all, I really hope you are all keeping safe!

The UK is now in lockdown 3, its clearly not the greatest start to the New Year, but we’ve all just got to stick together, follow the rules and then hope the summer will bring a slight change in normality.

I can gather a lot of my followers are missing that social time in there local pub, enjoying a couple of pints of beer, truth is so am I!

However, like most of my beer/whisky followers, I have started trying a range of different drinks whilst sitting in the comfort of my own home, I mean its fun, cheap and of course safe!

Today though is Whisky Wednesday, and I thought what better way to kick off the day with a whisky post, this whisky that I’ll be talking about today was one of the many samples I tried over the festive period.

Today’s post is on Arran – Sherry Cask (The Bodega) 55.8% ABV!

History

It all started in 1993 when the search began on the Island Of Arran to find the perfect site for the new distillery, to be situated on the island.

The Lochranza Distillery which creates all of the Arran whiskies was born, it was a perfect place to have the distillery because of the water surrounding the Island, which is high quality.

On 16th December in 1994, building work started on the distillery, it was located at the north end of the Island of Arran, in the western part of Scotland.

Then suddenly, the most bizarre thing happened, building work was halted due to a family of Golden Eagles which were nesting above the home of Lochranza. Since the eagles have started nesting they have become a big part of the distillery’s family.

On 29th June 1995, the first ever bit of spirit ran through the distillery at 2:29pm, this was a huge milestone for the distillery, the building was complete and now it was time for the official opening date of the distillery which was August 17th 1995, finally it was time to start producing and making whisky!

Alongside the distillery there is the tremendous Customer Visitor Centre, the idea of the centre is to show many whisky lovers and people on how whisky is made from a piece of malt, to a gorgeous alcohol spirit. The centre was opened by Her Majesty ,Queen Elizabeth II on the 9th August 1997.

Next, in 1998, after three years of maturation the first cask of Arran Single Malt Scotch Whisky was opened on 25th July by Scottish film star Ewan McGregor. Believe this or not, but this was first legal dram on the island for over one hundred and sixty years.

Then, the Lochranza Distillery created and bottled the Arran Malt 10 Year-Old in the spring of 2006 and still to this very day it remains at the heart of the Arran range.

In 2007, the distillery was proudly awarded Distillery of The Year, this again was an incredible milestone for the distillery, it certainly shows what amazing work the team are doing and of course creating delicious and wonderful whiskies.

Over the next couple of years, the distillery continued to create many more whiskies to add to there core range, this also included The Bodega, which has become one of the popular whiskies by the distillery.

Still to this very day, the distillery continues to produce exceptional whisky for the people of the UK, as the years go one, I can expect to see more fantastic and amazing whiskies being produced and I am incredibly lucky to be able to owe one of the distillery’s flagship whiskies.

Tasting Notes

The Bodega is an 100% Sherried Cask whisky which is both luxurious and elegant! There is layers of rich sweet spice and oak.

This whisky heavily warming, and is perfect if you are wanting a sweet winter drink, hints of chocolate and hazelnut brim through the top of the bottle.

It is finally matured in some of the most finest Sherry Casks which delivers that satisfying sherry texture as soon as you take the first sip.

Review

Throughout the festive season, I have been enjoying and indulging into many beers and whiskies, and when it came to deciding what I was going to drink over the festive period, I knew straight away I had to pick the Arran – Sherry Cask The Bodega.

As I’ve mentioned time and time again, sherried whiskies are my upmost favourite style of whisky and from research sherried whiskies are the most popular tipples that whisky connoisseurs enjoy at Christmas, a perfect match then!

It was Christmas Day evening and after a gorgeous Turkey Dinner cooked by mum, it was time to crack open a whisky!

The first thing you will notice on the case of this whisky, it that it provides the co-ordinates of where the distillery is situated on the Island of Arran, but I will have to tell you, the colour of the whisky is far more fascinating.

Just look at the colour, that is a proper sherried whisky colour, as soon as I poured the whisky into the glass, you could just smell the heavily scent of sweet spice, it was amazing and so gorgeous.

The only problem with this whisky is once you’ve had one glass, you will want another and another, so what I did to combat this problem, I left it towards the end of Christmas Day and then I sampled this whisky, I would also suggest that you should try it with a mince pie, it is a outstanding combination and was completely full of flavour.

Apologise for the blurry picture, but I believe that you can tell, I was seriously enjoying this whisky so much and yes I was totally in the Christmas Spirit by wearing my favourite Christmas Jumper.

Ending 

The Bodega is ultimately once of the finest sherried whiskies that I’ve ever tried, the flavour in my opinion the flavour nearly matches the same taste as The Glendronach 15 Year Old Revival, and that’s not a bad thing!

I will have to mention though, that this whisky should be consumed carefully, it may well be really sweet, but its also highly strong, if you believe you want to make this whisky slightly lighter, I would suggest by adding small droplets of whisky water, it might change the flavour, but it will still be full of sherry.

Finally, I just want to put this out here and say how much I would recommend this whisky to you, like I stated earlier, I am so proud to owe a bottle of The Bodega, if you want a whisky whisky is heavily sherried and sweet, then the Arran Sherry Cask (The Bodega) is the one for you.

If you want to know where you can get this bottle from, I would say The Whisky Shop is the best place, you seriously cannot beat there prices, they’re unbelievable!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week, I shall be back on Saturday with my next beer post!

Take Care and Stay Safe!

Cheers

The Cask Connoisseur