aacharbonneau
Aberlour A'bunadh
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed
October 14, 2019 (edited October 17, 2019)
Nose: Stewed cherries surprisingly comes out first, I was expecting ethanol instead due to the ABV. There's also some bright plum on front, followed by some sweet, biscuity, malt. Underneath the fruit, I also find some brown sugar and molasses and a hint of wood spice.
Palate: Definitely some spice on the tongue at first - a bit tingly. Lots of honey, and TONS of graham cracker and biscuity malt. The sherry influence comes in after the malt, with yogurt-covered raisins, lots of dates, some nuttiness, and a slightly bitter wood note. There's a bit of an ambiguous smoky note in there as well.
Finish: Medium length and dry. alt dominates the finish alongside some more raisins and dates. That bitter wood note also sticks around unfortunately - kinda like a walnut-type of bitter.
Water dulls the nose a bit and definitely brings some alcohol burn, which was surprisingly lacking initially. Under the ethanol, there's some buttery grain, wood spice, and orange honey. It's much more voluminous and oily feeling now, with lots more oak, cinnamon, and cardamom. Loads more spices with water. The drying date note disappears and is replaced by more nuttiness and caramel-covered raisins.
Conclusion: This reminds me of the bottom of a bag of trail mix - raisins, dates, and all the broken bits of nuts. I'm a pretty big fan of the heavy sherry influence, but I don't know if this is worth the price. I'd never turn down a glass, but I don't know if I'd pay the $100+ I've seen listed in some places.
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@PBMichiganWolverine Haha yeah bait and instant switch!
@Soba45 60th is damn good. Glenfiddich does it by batch 2. Their accountants must be sheer geniuses
@PBMichiganWolverine Ah as often the case first batch is awesome and by the time you get to the 60th the accountant's are trying to make it cheaper, faster etc :-)
@Soba45 @cascode I’ve read the first batches up to late teens were great. I had batch 45, which I thought was like cherry NyQuil
@cascode Yeah they are variable with older not necessarily better. I had batch 58 or something. As you say you need to be into sherry bombs and these days I doubt I'd rate even batch 58 as high as I did.
@Soba45 Interesting- I had a Batch 55 a couple of years ago and it was OK but that’s the last I’ve tasted. The whole sherry bomb on steroids act isn’t my thing. I did look at a bottle of Batch 64 when coming through duty free on the weekend, but I’m glad now I didn’t do it.
Yeah the old late 50s batches were amazing...later ones not that great sadly