Machrie Moor Fingal's Cut Sherry Finish Whisky Review!

This distillery exclusive Machrie Moor sounds like Arran's challenger to Uigeadail's peat + sherry crown, and something tells me it's going to be a cracker!

Machrie Moor is the name given to the heavily peated single malt made by Arran Distillery, located at Lochranza on the Isle of Arran off Scotland's west coast. Arran has been around for a while now, having started production in late 1995, but they've recently opened a second distillery on the opposite end of the island, named Lagg, and the original distillery is now named Lochranza Distillery - but still produces Arran single malt. Construction began back in 2017, before the first Lagg spirit flowed from the stills in March 2019 - which means that their own whisky won't be ready until at least March 2022. Interestingly, Lagg has been classified as a Lowland distillery by the Scotch Whisky Association's official regions, while the original distillery at Lochranza is part of the 'Highlands & Islands' region. That has happened because while the sister distilleries are only twenty miles apart, the new site is below the fault line that separates the Highlands from the Lowlands, which runs right through the Isle of Arran. It's still an island distillery of course, but since that isn't officially a separate region (it should be) and is lumped in as part of the Highlands, it's been placed in the Lowlands classification. As an aside, if Campbeltown had lost its regional whisky classification - which would have happened if Glengyle Distillery had not been brought back to life - it would also have become part of the Lowlands region. And just like those produced in Campbeltown, the whisky that Lagg Distillery produces will be nothing like the typical / expected Lowland style of malt, because Lagg is going to be producing heavily peated spirit! In fact Lagg will be taking the reins for all of the peated spirit to come out of the island, while the Lochranza distillery will move to producing only unpeated spirit. The stills at Lagg are also pointedly different to Arran's, and are designed to produce a heavier, denser style of spirit along with that heavily peated barley. What's also interesting here is that they'll be using malted barley peated to 50 ppm, which is a substantial increase from the 20 ppm malt that is used in the current crop of Machrie Moor whiskies. 

The new distillery has been named in honour of the old and short-lived Lagg Distillery that operated from 1819 to 1840, which was located roughly a mile from where the new distillery has been built. I quite like this idea of naming new distilleries and new whisky brands after deceased distilleries, particularly when they're close to the original location. It brings more of the local history into perspective, which otherwise would be fading into oblivion all the faster. While the Lagg visitor's centre has already started selling bottled new make spirit and private casks, the spirit itself is a few years away from becoming whisky. So for now the peated single malts from the Isle of Arran are still made in Lochranza, and are still branded as Machrie Moor - named after the island's peat bog. I last tasted a Machrie Moor here back in 2015, with the NAS Cask Strength being quite a tasty - although bitey - young, spirit-driven whisky. I must admit that I've not tasted any of the unpeated Arran single malts since their recent rebrand, so things could have changed, but at the time I much preferred the Machrie Moor range to the unpeated offerings, which had left a little to be desired for my tastes. But the distillery is five years older now, they have more core range bottlings and less obscure cask finishes in the range, and the new, more simplistic packaging - which many distilleries are now shifting towards - is quite attractive. 

This particular Machrie Moor is a distillery exclusive bottling, but it's not exclusive to the Lochranza distillery where it was produced - it's exclusive to the Lagg Distillery's visitors centre, sold as a bonus to visitors while they wait for Lagg's own whisky to mature. This is a cask strength, heavily peated, Oloroso sherry cask finished single malt, and while it's not officially stated rumour has it that this bottling was distilled from 50 ppm malt, so it's probably a little closer to the eventual Lagg whisky than the regular & existing Machrie Moor whiskies will be. To my knowledge this is the first sherry-influenced Machrie Moor bottling, with the standard 46% and cask strength bottlings being ex-bourbon (probably refill) cask matured. There are two distillery exclusive bottlings of Machrie Moor 'Fingal's Cut' on offer at Lagg Distillery; this cask strength sherry cask finish priced at 60 GBP, and a quarter (125-litre) cask finish which is bottled at 46% and is priced at 45 GBP. So very reasonable pricing for what are quite unique new ventures for the Isle of Arran, and both are naturally coloured and non-chill filtered. This sherry cask finish has been aged in first-fill ex-bourbon casks for around 8-years and then finished in Oloroso sherry casks for 6-12 months. While the name Machrie Moor refers to the island's peat bog (although no local peat or barley is used), the name Fingal's Cut is a reference to a giant warrior / warrior giant from Celtic mythology named Fingal who apparently used to tether his dog to one of Arran's many standing stone circles found in said peat bog. Which has me wondering, was the dog also a giant, or did the giant have a regular sized dog? The artwork on the box seems to point towards the latter, but I like the idea of a giant having a regular sized dog... Speaking of which, I do like this bolder packaging and busier design, although there is a touch of 'Highland Park Viking' to it. Regardless, this heavily peated cask strength whisky from Arran promises to be something of a giant in it's own right!

Machrie Moor Fingal's Cut Sherry Cask Finish, NAS, 54.4%. Isle of Arran, Scotland.

Produced at Arran Distillery (Lochranza) from 50 ppm malt, exclusive to sister distillery Lagg Distillery's gift shop. Finished in Oloroso sherry casks. Cask strength, non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Dark bronze-red. 

Nose: Rich & deep. Dark rum, Christmas cake with vanilla butter frosting / icing. Sweet raisins, orange peel, roasted almonds and walnuts. A little cherry and nectarine, and some dark chocolate. Dry, earthy, ashy peat. Creamed honey and dry spices. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, deep and dark, rich & peaty. Touch of heat but it works. 

Taste: Soft entry that builds quickly with big spicy, dry, chunky and earthy peat. Raisins soaked in dark rum. Dried cherry, nectarine again and more dark chocolate. Sweet vanilla icing / frosting again and some lemon. 

Finish: Medium length. Roasted nuts again, and the peat turns to embers but adds a big wave of ashy smoke. Cherry syrup, more orange peel, touch of leather and more vanilla. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Tasty stuff, very different from the other Machrie Moor bottlings, and there's certainly plenty of peat - not on the level of the Ardbeg like I first expected, but definitely more than I found in the regular Machrie Moor range. The finish does drop off quite quickly, but the nose and palate do help to make up for it. It's not a big bruiser either despite the numbers, and once that big chunky peat passes it's quite gentle. A velvet fist in an iron glove, then? There's still plenty of flavour, and it's quite well balanced with neither the sherry nor the peat being allowed to take over completely. I'd have to peg this as my favourite Arran official bottling to date, but I must admit that I haven't revisited their unpeated range in quite some time - I have some very good independent bottlings from the likes of the SMWS, though. 

I guess this is a moot point now with Lagg coming online, but why haven't we seen more 50 ppm Arran? They must have produced more spirit than just the two bottlings that are available (and both exclusive to the distillery shop at Lagg). I understand keeping it as an incentive for the visitors to the new distillery, but it's only going to muddy the waters when Lagg starts releasing whisky, since they'll be doing similar work. So let's get it out there please! 

Cheers!