Arbikie Highland Rye Review
Travel Distilled reviews the limited edition single-grain rye from the award-winning Arbikie Distillery, the first Scottish rye whisky in 100 years.
You’d think a whisky that’s only 3 or 4 years old (there are two expressions so far) is too young to be allowed out on its own, but like Ardbeg has shown with its 5-year-old Wee Beastie, young whiskies can still be stunning.
Arbikie first made its name with its award-winning vodkas, before it added some gins to its range. Now it’s released both 3-year-old and 4-year-old expressions of its Scottish Highland Rye, a single-grain Scotch whisky. It proves that you don’t have to wait for ten years and more for a whisky to be worthy of the name. If you know what you’re doing – and Arbikie clearly does – a whisky can have amazing aromas and flavours after just three years in the barrels, though the one I’m reviewing is the later 4-year-old.
In the Barrels
This version of their Scottish Highland Rye spent the first three years of its young life in charred American oak barrels, and was then finished with a final year in barrels that had previously held Pedro Ximinez sherry. The result is the first Scottish rye whisky for over 100 years, and one that’s bottled at 46% ABV.
If you’ve never tasted Pedro Ximinez sherry, you should put that right as soon as you can. It’s a world away from the dry sherries that most people are more familiar with, and it has a rich, sweet taste and smell of raisins, chocolate, Christmas cake, figs, honey… all manner of things. Just imagine what a barrel that’s held a sherry like that brings to a whisky. No wonder those barrels are popular with whisky distillers.
Field to Bottle
I’ve written elsewhere about the Arbikie history and their philosophy, and you can see that here. They’re firm believers in field-to-bottle, with every ingredient being grown on their Scottish highland estate – even the chilis in their powerful Arbikie Chili Vodka. With this Highland Rye they even tell you which field the grains are grown in (the south-facing ‘Drummies’ field for this one), that’s how much they know about their sources.
The Grains
Although it’s described as a single-grain whisky, it doesn’t mean there’s just one grain in it. Confused? Well, that’s the Scottish whisky regulations for you. To them, a single-grain whisky uses grain grown on a single estate, which this is. The grains Arbikie uses are an Arantes Scottish rye, a Viscount Scottish wheat and Odyssey Scottish malted barley. It’s a rye whisky because rye is dominant.
Arbikie Highland Rye Review
So… rye, wheat, barley, fields, maturation, American oak, sherry – there are so many permutations that go into making a good whisky, and the distillery has to get every one of them just so. One sniff of Arbikie’s Highland Rye and you know this is something special. It’s gorgeous, and there’s so much going on aroma-wise that it’s hard to separate things, but there’s definitely luscious caramel, fruity peach, the sweetness of maple syrup, some pepper and some spicy cloves, among many other things.
Tasting Arbikie Highland Rye
A whisky this young has no right to be so good. Swirl it around and your mouth pops with flavours: orange, marmalade, spice, citrus, vanilla, caramel, that Pedro Ximinez sweet and rich sherry flavour coming through, and that’s just for starters. The finish retains all of those, and is surprisingly smooth, belying its 46% ABV.
Buying Arbikie Highland Rye
If you want to sample this awesome whisky you’ll have to be quick as there are fewer than 1,000 bottles available. At the time of writing you could still find it at Master of Malt as well as direct from Arbikie. You can also find other Arbikie spirits on Drizly.
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