Arran 10yo Old Particular
Douglas Laing Independent Bottling | 48.4% ABV
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Like official Arran 10, without the sherry
Whisky’s Annual Performance Review
I have never been a big New Year’s resolution type of guy.
At least not the life-changing, get-fit kind of resolutions. I do enjoy starting the year with at least some proposition of what I am planning in the months ahead, despite having already learned that life tends to throw curveballs when we least expect it.
And so, as I start writing this preamble, I’m looking at the calendar: I can hardly believe that we have just turned the corner into February. January has gone in a flash. And, due to work demands, there’s no chance of me achieving even minimal planning this year.
As soon as I walked through the door of my workplace after a whirlwind of family reunions over the winter break, I was hit by the side effects of an often-deadly combination that can plague projects in some corners of the corporate world.
When employees, fearful of mistakes (and their repercussions), clash with anxious, impatient executives, projects can tailspin into a complete mess. I have, both fortunately and unfortunately, earned a reputation for bringing things back on track when issues arise. So, Hughie was asked to step in and fix a mess. And asked to do so in a couple of weeks, at most.
So January turned into long working days and little time for whisky. Not to say it was a dry January in any shape or form, but the whisky I imbibed was more of an occasional wind-down after a long week than a chance to enjoy and appreciate the output of my favourite distilleries.
I put a good dent in the work needed and put the project back on track, but that meant missing that habitual, comforting planning for the year ahead. Ironically, it is the corporate aspect of my work that brought that 2026 resolutions topic back into focus.
The common saying is that only two things are certain in life: death and taxes. For those who have spent any time in a corporate environment, there is a third inevitable occurrence: yearly performance reviews.
I suspect anyone who has spent some time in a corporate job knows all too well what I am referring to. But for those unfamiliar with the process, let me provide a brief overview. As the name itself suggests, this is the process of assessing an employee’s performance against the company’s values and the employee’s own goals for the year.
Leaving aside the part dedicated to how an employee fits the company’s values - often a surreal medley of capitalist hype and Soviet-style propaganda wrapped under the bow of the company's values and thought out by someone with hardly any clue about employee motivation; it is the part dedicated to the performance that can be a great moment of feedback and self-reflection - if you have (or are) a good manager. If you are unlucky and have a not so good manager, you may find out that, as with many HR processes in the corporate world, something potentially positive gets twisted into either bureaucratic singlemindedness or a malicious tool for personal agendas.
So this year I decided, instead of my usual resolutions, to take a moment and look back at my year in whisky and carry out my own personal whisky performance review. And it is a mixed bag, great on the experience part, less than stellar when it comes to consistency. Squarely in the “Shows enthusiasm, but could do better” category.
If I judge 2025 purely by the variety of whiskies I was lucky to try, I would put it forward as my best year ever. And even better, a lot of that came thanks to events like Whisky Live Paris and the Glasgow Whisky Festival. Great events, in their own different way, made truly special thanks to the company. Thanks to whisky shared with old and new friends.
Where I definitely did poorly was when it came to following my own advice. I started 2025 with two resolutions
The first was to avoid overbuying. I completely failed. I bought more in 2025 than ever before. I wish my excuse was that I felt I had to lend a hand bucking the declining sales trend. I’d be lying - it was mainly excitement and FOMO. I know I am far from alone in this, at least on these shores. But it cannot continue with this rhythm - I have enough bottles to last me close to a decade and no more space to store them.
Unsurprisingly, I want to scale down my collection size in 2026. I started thinking I could do so by limiting myself to buying a new bottle for every two bottles emptied. Besides the obvious logical risk of this driving to overindulgence just to make space for a much-wanted new bottle, I know that I am already sabotaging myself. I have scheduled to extend my upcoming Independent Spirits Festival trip in a few weeks to visit a couple of distilleries. And you can bet I will want some liquid souvenirs from the trip. This will be a tough resolution to stick to. Still, as long as I end the year with the same number of bottles - or fewer - than what I have now (a number I am embarrassed to mention), I’ll be happy.
The second resolution was to increase the number of bottles I open.
I started 2025 with about a third of my collection sealed. Today I am at about 50% open and 50% sealed, worse off than when I started in January 2025. I need to remind myself that I bought all those bottles, bar maybe a couple, because I wanted to taste the liquid, not for them to collect dust on a shelf. At some point, I felt the urge to uncork them, spend some time with them and continue to grow my whisky exposure, be it because of producer reputation, suggestions from friends, or just plain curiosity,
Sure, over-acquisition is in part to blame for the state of things. After all, there is only so much I am willing to consume, and I drink a lot less than you maybe would assume. There is another, truer but maybe more embarrassing reason behind those closed bottles. The ones I left closed are victims, mostly, of my hummingbird-like attention span when it comes to getting excited about whisky. More than once, I’ve ordered a bottle that I’m keen to crack open, but even before the parcel has left the warehouse I’ve already found another bottle to be excited about. While the latter was cracked open on arrival, the former stays shelved for another day. Often, that meant forgotten. Thankfully, being part of Dramface gives me a great excuse to dig out and open some of these bottles.
The writing material is there waiting to be picked.
Review
Arran 10yo, Douglas Laing’s Old Particular, Distilled September 2013, Bottled July 2024, Refill Barrel, DL 29099, Natural Colour, Non-Chill Filtered, 48.4% ABV
€72 (£60) paid. Now sold out.
Which brings me to today’s bottle. It fits perfectly into that “forgotten bottles” shelf of my collection. I remember perfectly well why I bought it, well over a year ago.
I was having an online chat with a couple of more experienced whisky mates about Arran 10, a bottle I loved and restocked frequently during my early days discovering craft-presented malts. But also a whisky I had started to feel a bit lukewarm about, even to the point of wondering if it might be overrated.
Before the many Arran 10 fans - who crowned it an OSWA trifecta winner - start sharpening their pitchforks, let me admit that overexposure might have had some role in my feelings towards this bottling at that time. I have warmed up to Arran 10 once more, and I fully agree it is a great value bottle, even if it lacks some of those contrasting or funky notes I tend to love in whisky. (The new Arran Barley, on the other hand, is a different story).
Be that as it may, during the chat, one of my mates was lamenting that Arran 10, while absolutely a fine whisky, had lost some of its charm as the (alleged, I should say) proportion of Sherry-cask-finished liquid in the vatting has increased over time. Barring looking for an old Arran 10 at auction, I had no way to test their theory (and as a science-educated guy, I do love testing a theory). But I was fascinated and curious to try a purely ex-Bourbon, or even better, an exclusively refill cask-aged Arran.
A couple of months after that chat, during a discount-induced bottle shopping spree, I came across this bottle. I couldn’t pass up the chance to try an Arran fully matured in refill casks, right?
So I pulled the trigger, and as soon as the delivery got home… I focused on the other bottles in the same delivery, a Bunnahabhain 18 and one of my constant favourites from Ardnamurchan’s core lineup, the Sherry Cask AD. And so this bottle lay forgotten until my delayed 2026 resolutions made me go back and take stock of those back-of-the-cabinet bottles… And here we are; ready to put that hypothesis about the Sherry component of Arran 10 (indirectly) to the test.
Score: 6/10
Good stuff.
TL;DR
Like official Arran 10, without the sherry
Nose
It doesn’t exactly jump out of the glass and needs a bit of time to really show itself. Once it does, there is immediately a lot of vanilla and coconut, almost reminiscent of a classy tanning lotion, with a hint of lime zestiness. Then, a big bowl of ripe pears, peaches and just a hint of papaya. There is a touch of cinnamon and, as it breathes, the malty core of the spirit is a lot more evident.
I still haven’t fully converted to the idea of adding water to whisky when the ABV is so low, but, hey ho, if I am not doing it at least when I review bottles here on Dramface, I never will. Adding a judiciously small amount of water - this is “only” 48.4% ABV after all - opens up the nose slightly, making it sweeter and fruitier, but also highlighting more of a young wood note (oddly more pine than oak).
Palate
Here, things flip compared to the nose. The palate pops on the tongue a lot more, with intense aromas. There is a cereal core layered with cinnamon and ginger, a lot more citrusy zest and an almost pastry-like richness, vanilla custard, shortcrust and fruit. The texture is nicely velvety, but not as mouth-coating as the intensity of taste had me hoping for. The finish is medium in length, a little bit more tropical, retaining some of that lime and cinnamon from the nose.
With water, the texture starts to verge on thin, and the flavours get a bit more smushed together, like a malted fruit loaf. Not in a bad or jarring way, but that pop of taste is lost, and there is a noticeable hot spiciness in the background.
The Dregs
Considering the reason I first bought this Douglas Laing bottling; that is, to taste a more cask-neutral Arran and see if less Sherry would be more to my taste than the original 10, I cannot avoid comparing the two.
It’s intriguing to notice what notes are still clearly present in this IB Arran and the original 10, and which ones are missing. To me, the OSWA Trifecta winner often brings to mind a rich tropical fruit salad, yellow fruits and coconut mostly, dressed with a rich syrup, a few raisins, vanilla, white pepper and some lime zest. It is what in Italian I would call “Piacione”; that is, a crowd pleaser which is aware and proud to be so. And, as all crowd pleasers, sometimes it can be a bit on-the-nose; eager to please and safe.
This Douglas Laing release lacks that crowd-pleasing character. It’s strong evidence that the Sherry cask component of the vattings contributes to the likability of the original 10. That’s neither good nor bad, but I’d happily trade it for more complexity, or a bit of edginess or funk. Which is often exactly what Independent Bottlers can deliver: a different angle on a loved distillery, something you usually don’t see in an official bottling.
Instead, this one is more like a subtractive game. It is recognisable as Arran; an Arran stripped of the Sherry. But not one that makes me want to slam my hand on the table with surprise or delight. A solid, good whisky. A 6 rather than a 7.
That said, it is an almost perfect one to put my mate’s theory to the test; that Arran10’s quality has declined with the presumed addition of a higher proportion of Sherry-aged spirit. After spending some time with this Douglas Laing release, I understand his point, and maybe an Arran 10 with less Sherry influence would tick more of my boxes.
Yet, pragmatically, I love that Arran 10 has developed such a likeable character. We need solid, reliable and affordable entry-level bottles presented without fussing about with filtration or caramel colouring, which appeal to a broader range of drinkers, not just us geeks. It’s great to see more distilleries getting it - just look at Glen Scotia’s 12 year old or Edradour 10 year old 46% upgrade. Arran just has a few years lead on some others. Let’s hope even more distilleries catch up. Let’s set some KPIs and make it a performance review for all of them.
P.S. Although this specific bottle is sold out, Douglas Laing (as well as Adelphi) released a few different Arran IBs in 2025, so if you are interested in trying an ex-Bourbon or Refill cask Arran IB, you have a chance to do so…
Score: 6/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. HC
-
Dramface is free.
Its fierce independence and community-focused content is funded by that same community. We don’t do ads, sponsorships or paid-for content. If you like what we do you can support us by becoming a Dramface member for the price of a magazine.
However, if you’ve found a particular article valuable, you also have the option to make a direct donation to the writer, here: buy me a dram - you’d make their day. Thank you.
For more on Dramface and our funding read our about page here.
