Well, don't hate me but THIS Arran 25 is my favorite to date. Really good stuff and frankly I thought it was a pretty good price as well at about 300 USD when I got it.
Thanks Jason for saving those who can afford this (not me, unless I decide to save money for a long time & I won't for this) for spending too much money ! 👍 i love the fact you've been very honest with your review despite you spent a lot of money in this & what consolates me is that you're gonna share it as I understood & get some money back...🙏
As I am not relying on free handouts from brands I can tell it the way I experience the whisky. So I can recommend the good ones and warn about the not so good ones
Arran Quarter Cask Bothy is right up there for me but the Sherry Cask and the 10 and a local 14 year store pick are also exceptional. Looks like we have to be careful about the older vintages. Great review as always......I appreciate the candid WYSIWYG approach. And you aren't even a peat head.....that really needs to change...:)
I was able to taste this as a pre-bottling sample at cask strength and really liked it. 300+ though is a tough sell for any whisky. Really can't remember it being that dark of that much sherry influence though...interesting.
I guess I can understand why Arran *wanted* to make a 25yo whisky from their inaugural production. What I don't understand is why they waited 24 years before trying it to check on its progress, and only then discover that no, keeping it all those years still didn't help the "average" casks used, and at which point--with few/no other options left?--they pull out the heavy finish joker card to try and lipstick the pig--metaphors a trifle mixed, sorry, like with all good trifles. In several vids you rightly criticise various bottlers/producers who add stupidly-overdone finishes on quite old (15+) whiskies, killing any taste/character they may (ought?) to have had--although if they did have such then the heavy-handed finish wouldn't have been needed. Do distilleries not pay people to check on the progress of the barrels in their warehouses? In a winery there are people checking barrels on a semi-regular basis--I don't know how often but possibly several times a year? Whiskies take a lot longer to mature but still one would have expected--making a presumptive arse of myself, here--that someone would be tasting barrels long before they got to 15+ years and discover that things were not going well with those casks and that a change of course may be in order before there's only one option left. Is that not part of what good cask/warehouse management means/entails? If such whiskies/casks were noticed earlier then they may be better able to handle a moderate finish on a younger distillate prior to bottling. One would have thought that the people working in the distilleries would be skilled enough to know not to make mistakes like this. But maybe it's a corporate thing where decisions are make at levels unrelated to the craft of distilling/blending; decisions based not upon taste and quality but instead upon cashflow and suchlike?
OK, but even checking once every, say, 5 years should have showed the direction of the casks--not at 5 or 10 years, maybe, but at 15 & (if they still weren't thinking) 20?
Ok, the Arran 25 arrived, and I'm a little gutted to say that I agree with @WhiskyJason 's review. I LOVE the nose, but it's just too hot on the pallet, and the flavours you expect from the nose are burned away. I want to enjoy this, but it's just a mid-70s, at best, from me. :-( The win here is more faith in a WhiskyJason review! Subscribed.
IMHO over 300 euro for a bottle of booze, being it 25 or 250 years old, is just absurd if one is buying it to actually drink it and not as an investment or collectable item. As for the quality of this particular one I suppose given the sub par casks available for the distillery back then there was not much more to be done. Still I feel a little sad for I do like Arran malts. They simply rushed to release a 25 yo bottling at ghe first possible moment no matter what. By the way the first 18 yo expressions from Arran also got not that flattering feedback due to the same reason and yet the last two releases are spoken to be excellent. It is only logical that in couple of years time the 25 yo bottling will improve. Still not going to worth 300+ euro for me, but as I said : no bottle of booze is😀 So far I have tasted the batch 2 of The Bothy, the 10 yo pre-rebranding and the new 10yo. IMHO the 10 yo was and still is ubeatable price/quality wise single malt whisky where I live. I also have, but haven't got to open them: the old Cote Rotie finish NAS, The Bodega sherry cask 55.8% NAS, new Amarone cask finish NAS, new 18 yo and a bottle of 10yo private refill sherry hogshead. Looking forward to get a bottle of the current 21 yo provided it comes at a reasonable price to our local market. Thank you for the competent and honest review, Jason. Cheers!
The things that are dug or cut in the wood are called letters and they are engraved. You let 25 year old whiskey breathe for 5 minutes and judge it. Then, as a benchmark, you use 18 year old whiskey, that's been breathing for a year? No, can't take you seriously.
Well, don't hate me but THIS Arran 25 is my favorite to date. Really good stuff and frankly I thought it was a pretty good price as well at about 300 USD when I got it.
I am very glad you like it!!
Thanks Jason for saving those who can afford this (not me, unless I decide to save money for a long time & I won't for this) for spending too much money ! 👍 i love the fact you've been very honest with your review despite you spent a lot of money in this & what consolates me is that you're gonna share it as I understood & get some money back...🙏
As I am not relying on free handouts from brands I can tell it the way I experience the whisky. So I can recommend the good ones and warn about the not so good ones
Well, did buy a sample out of sheer curiosity. The new 18 is my current favorite dram.
the new Arran 18 is very nice!
Thanks for the video. I think 4 bottles of the 18 may make more sense than one of these :)
TOTALLY agree!
The quarter cask is my favourite. It's pure nectar.
agree!
Arran Quarter Cask Bothy is right up there for me but the Sherry Cask and the 10 and a local 14 year store pick are also exceptional. Looks like we have to be careful about the older vintages.
Great review as always......I appreciate the candid WYSIWYG approach. And you aren't even a peat head.....that really needs to change...:)
New Arran bottlings are so much better!
@@WhiskyJason1 I just picked another bottle of the 10 year old today.
Very nice drink
Keep watching
Composite---what a great word!
I like the Bothy also and the older 10 year old.
Thanks Jack!
Spirit that is this old normally need some time in the glass to breathe and a littlewater. I tried the 21 year old, and it was fantastic.
Here is my review of the Arran 21
ruclips.net/user/livebP_uWkcSlpY
I was able to taste this as a pre-bottling sample at cask strength and really liked it. 300+ though is a tough sell for any whisky. Really can't remember it being that dark of that much sherry influence though...interesting.
I am sure cask strength is very different from this bottling with 46%
I guess I can understand why Arran *wanted* to make a 25yo whisky from their inaugural production. What I don't understand is why they waited 24 years before trying it to check on its progress, and only then discover that no, keeping it all those years still didn't help the "average" casks used, and at which point--with few/no other options left?--they pull out the heavy finish joker card to try and lipstick the pig--metaphors a trifle mixed, sorry, like with all good trifles.
In several vids you rightly criticise various bottlers/producers who add stupidly-overdone finishes on quite old (15+) whiskies, killing any taste/character they may (ought?) to have had--although if they did have such then the heavy-handed finish wouldn't have been needed. Do distilleries not pay people to check on the progress of the barrels in their warehouses? In a winery there are people checking barrels on a semi-regular basis--I don't know how often but possibly several times a year? Whiskies take a lot longer to mature but still one would have expected--making a presumptive arse of myself, here--that someone would be tasting barrels long before they got to 15+ years and discover that things were not going well with those casks and that a change of course may be in order before there's only one option left. Is that not part of what good cask/warehouse management means/entails? If such whiskies/casks were noticed earlier then they may be better able to handle a moderate finish on a younger distillate prior to bottling.
One would have thought that the people working in the distilleries would be skilled enough to know not to make mistakes like this. But maybe it's a corporate thing where decisions are make at levels unrelated to the craft of distilling/blending; decisions based not upon taste and quality but instead upon cashflow and suchlike?
I think most casks are NOT tasted even once a year
OK, but even checking once every, say, 5 years should have showed the direction of the casks--not at 5 or 10 years, maybe, but at 15 & (if they still weren't thinking) 20?
Ok, the Arran 25 arrived, and I'm a little gutted to say that I agree with @WhiskyJason 's review. I LOVE the nose, but it's just too hot on the pallet, and the flavours you expect from the nose are burned away. I want to enjoy this, but it's just a mid-70s, at best, from me. :-(
The win here is more faith in a WhiskyJason review! Subscribed.
Thanks Mathew!!
Sorry to hear that!
Well that is sad, 25 years you would expect something great. I still love Arran, I love the 14.
and for this price I would expect something MUCH better!
I think you were unlucky with your batch. The 2022 edition is top
it was a few years ago
You allow us to save so much money, danke Jason ! You should rethink what you said about Craigellachie 23 now 😁 just teasing
Yes the Craigellachie 23 is very good, but I like the Craigellachie 17 better
@@WhiskyJason1 i don't blame you
IMHO over 300 euro for a bottle of booze, being it 25 or 250 years old, is just absurd if one is buying it to actually drink it and not as an investment or collectable item. As for the quality of this particular one I suppose given the sub par casks available for the distillery back then there was not much more to be done. Still I feel a little sad for I do like Arran malts. They simply rushed to release a 25 yo bottling at ghe first possible moment no matter what. By the way the first 18 yo expressions from Arran also got not that flattering feedback due to the same reason and yet the last two releases are spoken to be excellent. It is only logical that in couple of years time the 25 yo bottling will improve. Still not going to worth 300+ euro for me, but as I said : no bottle of booze is😀
So far I have tasted the batch 2 of The Bothy, the 10 yo pre-rebranding and the new 10yo. IMHO the 10 yo was and still is ubeatable price/quality wise single malt whisky where I live. I also have, but haven't got to open them: the old Cote Rotie finish NAS, The Bodega sherry cask 55.8% NAS, new Amarone cask finish NAS, new 18 yo and a bottle of 10yo private refill sherry hogshead. Looking forward to get a bottle of the current 21 yo provided it comes at a reasonable price to our local market.
Thank you for the competent and honest review, Jason. Cheers!
I still think the 18 is better than the 21 - as you said the new releases are better than the old ones - much better casks!
Any chance a comparison tasting of your favourite Irish whiskeys on St Patrick’s Dad. Chat soon
St Patrick’s Day. 17 March 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃
nope - sorry - but I will post a review of an Irish Whiskey today
Tnks. Look forward to the review
Yup!
Thanks!
Has your box warped and made it so you can't close it?
I don't know - the box is long gone now
The things that are dug or cut in the wood are called letters and they are engraved. You let 25 year old whiskey breathe for 5 minutes and judge it. Then, as a benchmark, you use 18 year old whiskey, that's been breathing for a year?
No, can't take you seriously.
then please find a different whiskytuber - Enjoy!
Harsh but hopefully fait - I have not tried it.
Why would you finish a 25 year old first release of a distillery ???
@@WhiskyJason1 Yes a bit sad.