Hi everyone!
Could have also done something with ‘Lour’ (It’s like a scowl). Someone else wanna come up with something?
Next up on the stag was another day in Speyside. We were a little hungover from our night in the Craigellachie hotel, but a bit more rested thanks to some proper sleep. The first tour that day was Aberlour so we headed over there.
It’s a nice distillery, owned by Chivas, but maybe a little overshadowed by Glenlivet and Strathisla (The home of Chivas). Fine tour, you know the drill by now, bit about the founder, here’s the mash tun, here’s the stills, etc. Nothing really stood out except for the tasting, which was bigger than I was expecting in a nice tasting room.
The line up started with the 10 and the 12 year old which I’ve reviewed recently and gave exactly the same marks, so I won’t bore you with that. But the others were distillery exclusives and a new batch of the A’Bunadh.
Aberlour New Make Spirit 63.5%
Nose: Estery with pear drops and some malty notes.
Aberlour 13 Bourbon Distillery Exclusive 58.1%
Colour: Light Gold
Body: Light
Nose: Floral, lemon-y, alcohol, very light. With water it’s nicely estery, but young.
Taste: Soft arrival, lemon and floral, building intense ginger and some white pepper. With water you get the New Make, pear, lemon, more young esters.
Finish: Medium length. Lemon pith and alcohol.
Even though it’s 13 years old, it still tastes young. Not a single cask, this is a small batch.
63/100
Aberlour 16 Distillery Exclusive 56.2%
Colour: Amber
Body: Medium/Full
Nose: Really rich Sherry, Christmas cake, rich dried cherry, earthy malt, a little nutty. With water you get some nice chocolate.
Taste: Intense but soft arrival, building spice and dried fruit, big powerful Sherry, lots of cherry, earthy malt, oily and mouth coating towards the end.
Finish: Long length. Oily, really sticks with chewy Sherry and late berries.
This was a nice one, that got more spicy and unbalanced with more time. Still very nice and finish is lovely.
78/100
Aberlour A’Bunadh Batch 58 61.1%
Colour: Amber
Body: Full
Nose: Immediately younger, herbal, mint, thyme, a little fresh cherry. With water you get earthy malt, green apple and it goes a bit spritzy, almost fizzy.
Taste: Power, young brash Sherry, alcohol, nice fresh cherry, some mint. With water some black pepper spice comes in.
Finish: Long length. Young and brash still with nutty Sherry.
The last batch I had was 48 and it seemed a bit more of a Sherry monster, but they deserve almost the same mark, which is pretty consistent.
74/100
Thanks for reading!
Scotch Reviews #392-#394
Whisky Network Reviews #438-#440
Network Average: 74.5
Best Score: 92
Worst Score: 44
0-49 Terrible
50-59 Bad
60-64 Just About OK
65-69 Ok to Good
70-74 Good
75-79 Very Good
80-84 Excellent
85-89 Superb
90+ Magnificent
Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.
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