Aberlour Casg Annamh (Batch 1)

Well, it appears that Aberlour is getting in on the rare cask game with this newest, NAS release. This is considered a small, limited release and this is the first batch- I don’t believe any of this made it to North America. This is Casg Annamh, which is Gaelic for “rare cask”, and is NCF’d, but has color added and is bottled at 48% ABV. It is an in-house blend of single malt whisky of undeclared age that has been aged in two different American oak barrels and European sherry oak It’s a beautiful sunset orange in the glass, while appearing very oily with heavy water droplets left behind after spinning it up. The nose is a wonderful bouquet, and probably the best part of this offering: oranges, raisins, toffee, sweet tea and sherry cask with a light oak backbone. It’s very enticing. The palate is relatively smooth with lots of sherry influence. There’s caramel sweetness in spades and a bit of a harsh, late bite on the back end. Youthful oak notes leave a bit of harshness behind and into the finish. Speaking of finish- it’s medium-long and mouthwatering. There’s leftover orange marmalade and sweet, yellow cake notes at the very end which make this feel like a dessert dram. It’s a great way to bring the tasting to a close. Overall, this fits in perfectly between the Aberlour 12 and the A’Bunadh. It’s significantly better than the 12 and cooled just enough for those that think the A’Bunadh is just too much. It lacks a little depth versus the 18, but the price point easily makes up for that. I found this online for around $80 for a 1L bottle. It’s a shame the numbers were so limited, but I’m assuming the initial numbering means there’ll be subsequent batch releases. That makes it a bit of a collector bottle now, as well. If you see one online or gathering dust on a shelf somewhere I’d say grab it. It’s a solid offering from Aberlour. 4 stars. Cheers.