@cascode The 'new' Glendronach Revival is decent but nowhere near the old, non-PX version, containing significantly older whisky.

@Slainte-Mhath Indeed. I have a couple of bottles each of the Glendronach 15 and 18 from the era when they contained the most "over aged" malt content, but I've not bothered much with them since then. That said, the contemporary 15 is pretty good and at the asking price it is a good purchase.

@cascode Thanks a lot for your insight. I think that neither Aberlour A'bunadh nor Tamdhu can challenge the old bottlings of Glendronach when it comes to sherried whiskies, but things went downhill after Billy Walker left the distillery. I am not a huge fan of Rachel Barrie, so I stopped buying Glendronach a few years ago. As for Glenallachie, I enjoy the younger bottlings (10 yo CS and 12 yo), but tend to avoid older expressions. We all know the quality of sherry casks dropped significantly over the years, but that is a problem all distilleries are facing.

@Slainte-Mhath The last A'bunadh I had was Batch 55 about 6 years ago which I rated at 85/100. It's generally a fine sherry bomb but the casking has dropped off in the last decade IMHO and anyway I prefer their age statement whiskies. I tasted Tamdhu Batch 4 CS as a sample (86/100) and liked it enough to buy a bottle immediately. Then I tasted Tamdhu 15 (also 86/100) and bought a bottle of that. Consulting my trusty tasting journal I see that I also have two Aberlours in the stash right now, a 2018 non-chill filtered 12 year old (84/100) and a 2021 18 year old (87/100) but no A'bunadh. I think it really comes down to the profile you prefer rather than "quality" as such, which is pretty much equivalent. If I had to make a decision I'd choose the Tamdhu because I like a more leathery profile to my malt rather than the sweeter character of Aberlour. And of course, either one knocks any contemporary Macallan on the canvas with one punch.

Has anyone compared Aberlour A'bunadh directly to Tamdhu Batch Strength? Both are contenders for the best widely available sherry bomb whisky.

@PBMichiganWolverine I vaguely remember to have tasted batch #1, but none of the other batches with very high scores (batch #6, #7, #13 and #27).

In Norway, alcohol above 60.0% ABV is considered a narcotic and hence strictly prohibited, as a consequence of which we rarely see Aberlour A'bunadh at our local Vinmonopolet. I bought batch #50 bottled in 2014 a couple of years back, but most subsequent batches were above 60% ABV and hence out of reach. When batch #72 came along (59.1%), the Norwegian monopoly decided to buy the entire batch for the Nordic market, so this batch is widely available here, but nowhere else. There were obviously a few collectors who were pretty upset that they could not get batch #72, as Vinmonopolet does not ship abroad.

@Slainte-Mhath i loved those early sub batch 20 releases. They put Aberlour on the map

Additional comment: I do re-reviews from time to time, but usually remove my old review when posting a new one. In this case, I decided to keep my old review of batch #57 (88 points), as I see a clear shift towards modern sherry whiskies. The main factor is seasoned casks, and while I certainly miss the superior old batches, I think that recent batches are decent enough to give them a try.

Additional comment: This review is for Aberlour A'bunadh batch #72, bottled at 59.1% ABV.