Arran Smugglers’ Series - Volume Two ‘The High Seas' (70cl, 55.4%)

Arran Smugglers’ Series - Volume Two ‘The High Seas' is a whisky from Arran (Islands). Bottled at 55.4% ABV, 70cl. Situated in the Firth of Clyde, the island of Arran was once a hotbed of illicit distillation and smuggling. Eventually though the dreaded Excise men got the best of Arran’s renegade stillmen, and the island was without a working distillery from 1837. That all changed in 1995 when the Arran distillery at Lochranza started production. Although it is a relative youngster, Arran’s investment in quality casks has paid dividends, and its popularity continues to soar like the Golden Eagles that nest nearby. This quick success, combined with high visitor numbers at the Lochranza distillery, have enabled the company to construct another distillery at Lagg, on the south of the island, that will focus on creating peated whisky. “The High Seas” is the second release in the Smugglers’ Series. A trilogy of Arran Malts, which pay tribute to the island’s history of maverick distillers, and their efforts to stay one step ahead of the government’s excise men. With the Smugglers’ Series Vol.II Arran have used a marriage of peated whisky matured in Bourbon casks, with whisky aged in rum barrels to illustrate the reliance these pioneering whisky pirates would have had on illicit, black market liquor for maturation. Volume Two ‘The High Seas’