.the arran - miss black

51.6% abv, €85, single malt, non-chill filtered, natural colour, single cask, cask strength

Nose: wood-chips, a hint of sulphur, sweet, honey, floral, obvious Sherry, raisins, old fashioned hard liquorice
Palate: sweet and dry, fruity, dried fruits, raisins, spicy, white pepper, stone fruits, mango, dark red cherries, a hint of sulphur, liquorice-root, cocoa
Finish: thick, mouth coating, spicy, layer-cake, fruity, dark ripe cherries, liquorice root, dry, a slight metallic hint
Mark: ++++/+

Conclusion: homnomnom... this is very nice. I would have liked to get hold of a bottle. She's a sherry bomb, wood and sulphur notes are omnipresent, but I happen to like that in a whisky. I suspect the hogshead first held a Piedro Ximénez Sherry, because of the thick nose and fat coating it leaves behind. Too bad that the bottles sold out within a month, but I can't blame them.

More info: distilled on 23/05/1997, matured in first-fill, ex-Sherry hogshead #1997/820, bottled on 08/04/2014 into 231 bottles

From the website: "On 17th May we released the third in a series of Visitor Centre Exclusive bottlings 'Miss Black's Bottle'. This edition follows on from Campbell's Cask and The Dragon's Dram. It was released on 17th May 2014 and was sold out on 9th June - a record for this series! 'Miss Black's Bottle' is an exclusive cask chosen by Visitor Centre Manager Faye Waterlowe who married her husband David in Lochranza on 17th May."

a very generous 10cl sample was supplied by the Arran for the Whisky Wire's twitter tasting