Arran peated | Whisky Lady

Day 2 of our 2025 London Whisky Show began with a bang. Intended to be a light starter, we found ourselves instead going straight to +50% with two special editions from Arran’s Lochranza Distillery!

We had a chance to test a new approach to our whisky show wanderings… We brought an extra glass for the satchel – reserved exclusively for peated drams! It was such a success, henceforth we will clearly adopt this method – one glass for unpeated, one for peated!

We shared with our whisky guide our familiarity with nearly all expressions on the table except these two:

Arran 12 Year Signature Series 3 Duero Discovery 50% 2025 Whisky Show GBP 81.25
Arran 15 Year Rare Batch Peated Sherry Butts 54.4% 2025 Whisky Show GBP 144

So we dove right in…

Arran 12 Year Signature Series 3 Duero Discovery 50%

Nose – Delicious dark berries, kumquats, toffee, and salty caramel popcorn
Palate – Prickly, yet settled down after a moment, red cherries joined all the red berries, sweet spices, creme caramel
Finish – Lots of tannins – clear wine influence, nuts and more…. mmmm….

Our whisky guide shared that this Signature edition was initially matured for 6 years in 1st fill and 2nd fill ex-bourbon barrels, then transferred to 1st fill Red Wine cask from the Duero River in northern Spain, to spend another 6 years further maturing in Warehouse No 4.

Arran 15 Year Rare Batch Peated Sherry Butts 54.4%

Nose – Mmmmm smoky sweet, fresh seaside breeze
Palate – Well-rounded, peat and sweet, beautifully balanced, subtle sherry influence
Finish – Long, lingering, and warm

Remarkable! For us to dive straight into such high ABV so early in the day – and that too with peat – was a clear departure from our normal pattern! And yet, somehow it worked!

PS – Our whisky guide shared that this limited edition expression was peated to 20 ppm.

So why did we skip the “standards”? Well… Putting it mildly, we’ve had more than a few Arran experiences over the years… I even managed to make it to both the Lochranza and Lagg Distillery in 2020!