4 Aberlours

There are so many good older sherried Aberlours, but how are the new batches? And how are the non-sherried older ones? Much Aberlour yet to discover for me. In this vertical session I'm going to mingle older and new bottlings.



Aberlour 16yo 43% OB

A fairly recent edition, double cask matured which means its first matured in bourbon casks for further enhancing in sherry casks. I bought this bottle in France in the summer of 2010. Golden red colour, smells light and sweet, vanilla and cinnamon, the top cream of an Irish Coffee, rhubarb sundae and strawberries, very light. The taste is all on vanilla fudge and caramel sauce. It's a sweet treat, a definite summers dram. Quite uninteresting and unchallenging yet perfectly drinkable to any occasion. I'm gonna use this as an initiation malt when friends with little or no experience in whisky are coming over. Big sips of this one is needed to get a tasteful kick out of it, its just to light for modest nipping.

The lighter side of Aberlour: 6.5


Aberlour 8yo 50% OB Campbell's Distillery ltd

A square bottle from Italy, dating back to the 70's or 80's. A great opportunity to try Aberlour from a bygone era. Actually its a beautiful decanter for a miniature, with a C and some barley impregnated on the glass, good stuff. Slightly lighter color than the 16yo, some or all sherry-matured here? Smells sweet and intense, burnt rubber, hay, linseed oil, roasted almonds and licorice. I guess its younger age of bottling and higher %abv really shines through. The taste is bittersweet, sulphury, really burnt, too intense for me, needs water to settle down hopefully, as the initial nice and honeyed sweetness on the palate is totally overshadowed by phenolic notes just after a second or two on the tongue. When diluted it becomes lighter, sweeter, green bell peppers, lightly austere, peppery, or more like chili and phenol, a real ashtray, but where they peating the barley back then? Anyway, Aberlour in a new(old) light.

This is fantastic, but only when diluted, anyway, more liquid to enjoy: 8


Aberlour 27yo 1963-1991 55.2% Cadenhead's

I think this is the oldest Aberlour I've had up until now, both in age of maturation and vintage. What were the Aberlour spirit like back in 1963? And what will it be at this age when bourbon matured? I think this one is from a single cask as well, a rare treat. White wine color, after all these years.. The nose screams of dry gin and vanilla, a weird mix that's totally different from what I usually find in Aberlours. When given time even more vanilla and some flour sugar appears alongside sweet licorice and mint. The taste is again full on vanilla, some moscatel wine, almond cake, turkish delight, there are so many different layers of sweet in this one I could easily get loose track of all the peppery notes, the smoked ham, the oak and all that jazz that comes along with it. I have to say, this sure isn't easy to get hold of, but if you get a chance it's highly recommended, at least by me!

Perfect old bourbon wood Aberlour: 9.5


Aberlour NAS 60.3% OB A'Bunadh batch#35

One of the newer editions of this long-running sherry-matured series. I have yet to be amazed the way many others have, but of what I've heard, the more recent batches should be a step up. It's not nearly as dark as the batches 30 and 32, the last ones that I tried. Shorter maturation? Less old stock? casks that've been used more times? Smells all on cinnamon and cardamum, nice but a bit boring, red beets and thyme. It seems much lighter than 60+percent, and much lighter than prior batches, but lets taste first before making any judgement. The taste is firm and peppery, a cracker, but not much more than that, some sweet oloroso notes as well. Needs water to open up I think. When diluted it gives some much needed cheese flavors on the palate, but it needs to be swirled around in the mouth a bit, mascarpone and gruyere is the ones I find, along with smoked pork leg, the ones found in supermarkets in spain, a bit dry and much more tasty than the boring northern european ones. I think it steps up a game when diluted, but all in all this is a bit disappointing, but keep in mind that I've just tasted two marvelous Aberlours just before this one.

I like it, but it lacks what I'd call extend of contents, it ends too fast: 6

5 relatively young Bruichladdichs

I have tried many Bruichladdich's, but again, there are so many versions, makes it kinda hard to get a grip of what Bruichladdich really should taste like. Port Charlotte, Octomore, Different wine finishes and so on. Time to try 4 different OB expressions alongside a youngster from Douglas Laing.


Bruichladdich 12yo 46% OB

One of the many age expressions from the Bruichladdich Distillery, smells very peaty for a Bruichladdich. Very coastal on the nose, salty, peaty, smoky, lime peel, orange peel and ashes. But it's sort of austere as well and a bit burnt, I think I can detect some Fino matured whisky in this one. I could be wrong however, let's taste. The taste is nicely burnt, marzipan, white chocolate, toffee, ammonium(not that I ever tasted it) and dark chocolate. The aftertaste is full of licorice and dry red wine, bitter juice and tonic water. Lets try diluted. I'd definitively have this without water. When diluted it gets more peppery and one-dimensional, and the aftertaste vanishes.

A good one, much bigger than what I expected: 6


Bruichladdich 15yo 46% OB

3 years up from the 12yo, which means that most of this whisky probably aren't any older than the 12yo. As the Bruichladdich distillery was closed from 1995-2001 except from some months in 1998, in which I believe the age difference in the 12yo and 15yo batches must've been made. A much gentler nose on this one, less peaty more salty, iodine, sea water and fish stock. The taste is again softer than the 12yo, peaty but not smoky, more burnt and sweet fruits, raisins, honey melon and unripe apples, kind of sour. All in all it doesn't compare to the twelve years old as it lacks the firm and powerful Islay-style.

Beaten by his younger brother: 4.5


Bruichladdich 10yo 1998-2008 46% OB Oloroso Sherry

From an oloroso cask, this is from one of the batches that were produced in the period when the distillery were closed between 1995-2001, It i sort of pale for a whisky 100% matured in ex oloroso casks, could there be some second fills or even third fill involved? Sort of the lighter side of yellow tea. Smells thick and burnt, very sulphury, needs time to open up. In 1bout 7-8 minutes it gets sweeter, dried figs, plum juice and blackberry jam. The taste is not sulphury, more in the lines of cinnamon, dark chocolate and bitter agricultures. Some water brings it all down a notch, not recommended.

I'd say its a very good combination of sherry/peat, not that many around: 6.5


Bruichladdich NAS 50% OB Infinity 3.10

Refill sherry and Tempranillo casks. Will it be in the same lines of the 1998 oloroso casked? The color is pretty similar at least. Smells much peatier than the oloroso, according to internet sources this one should contain about 20ppm. I believe the standard bottlings usually contain about 5ppm. This one should be a cracker. The taste is amazing, the peatiness in this one reminds me a bit of Laphroaig actually. Sweet honey suryp, fino sherry style, salty butter and iodine. The aftertaste is so rustic, much better that the lighter standard Ob's.

Explosive stuff, peaty and sherried: 7.5


Bruichladdich 14yo 50% OMC Doulas Laing

First and only IB in this vertical. I have neither seen or heard about this one online. I know an eleven year old Macallan created a bit of fuzz a while back, but other than that I find the better OMC-bottlings to be way older than this one. From a bourbon cask, the palest one in the bunch. Smells light, sliky-smooth, cream cheese and leeks, extremely light and delicate. The taste is rather boring, peppery and butter. This one needs water. Water makes it spicier, chorizo and burnt rubber. Weird for a bourbon cask. There's also some unripe bananas.

A totally middle of the road malt, the total mean: 5

4 Closed Distilleries (maybe just three???)

As I quietly pronounced when starting doing mostly verticals were that I was still gonna have my usual tastings with mixed distilleries once in a while. Up until now I have kept those tastings outside Scotland, but lets change that. Glenlochy, Glenugie, Ladyburn and Imperial, I'm not sure if Imperial is all closed down or just mothballed, hopefully the latter. Let's start with the Imperial.


Imperial 14yo 1969-1983 40% Gordon & Macphail Connoisseurs Choice

Old vintage at only 40% and only 14yo, maybe this will differ a lot from the newer CS/SC/Older(!) bottling that are flying around nowadays. It smells really nice, distinctive caramel and creamy butter. Sweet marmalade and ginger. Impressive! The taste is very spirity and burnt at first, fairly bad-tasting. But then it turns into a sweet marzipan and licorice aftertaste. It's like the initial odors are smooth and all good, the palate a small disaster, before the good start is reincarnated in the finish. Extremely smooth, almost like a perfect blend. The palate being a small letdown however.

I guess Imperial will be missed by some, at least by me: 6.5


Ladyburn/Rare Ayrshire 34yo 1975-2009 45.2% Signatory Vintage

I know that IB's aren't allowed to name their cask from the long gone distillery Ladyburn "Ladyburn". I like that they have kept it at cask strength, a chance to taste something, if not utterly great, then at least utterly rare. I think that the single malt bottled at Ladyburn, if any of it were, were bottled at low strength. Nice golden color. Smells herbal, grassy, mashed leaves, over-ripe bananas and mint. The taste is burnt, cinnamon, again this over-ripe banana/brown banana half-nauseating sweetness. Then it gets a bit drying and it finishes of on a good note with more cinnamon and grassiness.

Good old single malt, although pretty predictable from start to finish: 6


Glenugie 29yo 1977-2006 49.6% Part Des Anges Closed Distilleries cask#360

The few ones I have tried from Glenugie up until now have all been utterly fantastic if I remember correctly. Lets hope this helps keep the score. Much bigger on the nose than the latter two, a smoky one. With time it gets even bigger, smoky, barbecue sauce, Galliano, mustard, curry, oaky, a lot happening here. The taste is sweet, brown sugar, honey, smoked pork serrano style, amazing whisky, it just lacks a bit on the palate when compared to what the nose promised. The aftertaste is also rather short, needs a small drop of water? Water makes little difference in this one.

Rich nose, beautiful palate, little to no aftertaste: 7


Glenlochy 27yo 1980-2007 58.3% btl.123/231 Closed Distilleries

Second on from Closed Distilleries, Glenlochy... I used to love Glenlochy when I started drinking whisky back then it wasn't all that expensive. But I guess that is the story with most closed distilleries nowadays. Anyway, I think Glenlochy is a whisky that is depraved of recognition compared to the produce it puts out. But its been a while since I last had a Glenlochy so lets see what this one has to offer. The much higher abv is recognizable on the nose, smells malty, oaky and burnt, bitter too. This is not what I expected, maybe it needs water, but lets taste neat first at least. The taste is dry, but shows promise of buttered corn and dried bell peppers. I'll add some h2o. Now it's much better, lots of soy sauce and pistachio flavor, red wine vinegar and dry apple cider. I wish this one was available today as I would have stopped hoarding Fettercairn and started on Glenlochy.... or maybe I'd just done a little of both. Who says you can't have two favorite distilleries?

Brings tears to my eyes: 8.5

4 different Glenturrets

Another session with whiskies from a distillery that usually doesn't make my boat float if you know what I mean. Maybe I'm in for a positive surprise, as I had when tasting Glen Keiths the other day.


Glenturret 14yo 43% OB for the Wee Dram Blackpool Trams

A commemoration of the the Edinburgh Car #35, a two story tram. Very well, pale color, sort of white wine-ish. It smells extremely light, natural orange juice and sweet tea. It's very different from the standard expressions, much fruitier. The taste is light and fruity, green apples and glue(?). A weird whisky, fruity and easy-drinking, yet a bit off. I think there is something going on with the distilling at Glenturret which creates these off-notes of industrial glue and rubber. It isn't the first time I've found them in a dram of Glenturret. With water it gets lighter, old book-dust and peppery. Now it seems mor like the good old slightly off Glenturret that I unfortunately have encountered to often.

Enjoy neat, yet there's only some light fruity notes, no challenge here: 4.5


Glenturret 14yo 43% Signatory Scottish Wildlife

Same age and abv as the one for the Wee Dram, same color as well. Smells more spirity and a bit burnt, burnt rubber. Burnt rubber and disinfecting medic spirit. The taste is more sour, sweet and sour, like sweet chili sauce with lemon juice, it gives a bit of a bite and has much more charisma than the one for the Wee Dram. This is much better than expected, could it some from a single cask? A very good pick by Signatory in that case. The finish is smooth and long, all on sweet herbs and lavender.

This is a fine Glenturret, I hope there's many more around: 6.5


Glenturret 18yo 1990-2008 46% Chieftain's Choice

I think there's some questionable expressions in the Chieftain's Choice-series, far more so than the rather good Dun Bheagan's. But I have not found what is the difference between these two. Could it be that DB is bottled at Cask Strength and CC is diluted? Again it doesn't give much odorwise, rubbery and spirity, can this be a late bloomer too? It tastes very peppery and somewhat acrylic, paint? Needs water. Water just lightens the peppery notes a bit.

This was somewhat a letdown: 3


Glenturret 27yo 1978-2005 50.1% Blackadder Raw Cask cask#354

3 bottlings of low expectations up until now, but this one ought to be something new. I usually enjoy the Raw Cask series from Blackadder quite a bit, but this one has no cask sediments. One of my favourite things to do is to chew the remaining sediments. It's fantastic! Well, after looking through my magnifying glass, I can see some small black dots. Hallelujah! Now let's taste. Light color, in fact, all the whiskies in this tasting has had the same light white wine color. Smells strong, spirity, rubbery, grassy and iron. The taste is burnt, hickory smoke and sugar free licorice lozenges, you know the ones that aren't sweet at all. This isn't the best of the bunch so far, maybe it needs a bit of water to open up. Now it gets sweeter with the sourness that I discovered in the Wildlife version. Much better! This sweet and sour stuff combined with a lot of pepperines makes for a good trio of flavors.

Water is needed in this one: 6

A follow-up on my cask project.

OK, this is a follow-up on this post http://www.maltdiary.com/2011/06/making-my-own-whisky-in-1-2-3.html from 27th. of June this year. I set some cream sherry in cask#1 on 19th of march and refilled it with new-make from Glenglassaugh distillery at 50% on 15th. of June this summer. Now I know this is far from whisky yet, but with such a small cask I've been warned to be very careful as it matures much faster and the wood impact can soon become a bit too big. Anyway, the glass in front of the cow holds the result as of today, and it seems to have gotten a very nice color in just over 3 months. I just hope that the alcohol hasn't evaporated too much, bear in mind only 50%abv newmake.

Let's give it a small tasting note just for fun.

Dark red color, way darker than the spirit drink that blushes... Smells heavy sherried, prunes, cinnamon, earthy, coffee, dark chocolate, not bad at all I must say, and from what I can smell there are still well above 40%abv in this one. The taste then? Oh, this is too sweet for me, I recognize the taste of malt spirit, but the sweet sherry influence is rather extreme. And it is so thick, sweet and a bit smoky, a sherry monster... no,no,no.. it's A SHERRY MONSTER!!!! Anyway, if you are into heavy sherry this is very good, but for me? I can drink one occasionally, but right now it is just a bit too much of the good stuff. Water helps and in the end I consider this a nice dessert whisky, could be put on vanilla ice cream or had on rocks as well.

5 whiskies representing 3 different produce from Tobermory Distillery

Ah, there are so many good whiskies from the Islands, the light and often single casked Arran, the beast Talisker, the connoisseur favorite Highland Park and even the Jura with the new range of cask strengths and different peat leveled whisky... And then there's Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull, a whisky that doesn't seem to fit into any category. Not much talked about, and sort of a light-weighter. But I haven't tried to many of ´em so lets see what it can do here.



Tobermory NAS 40% OB Blend

A blend consisting of unpeated Tobermory and grain, I think this whisky is a couple of decades old. Smells light and fresh, wet grass, fresh mint and toothpaste. Extremely light and fresh. The taste is light, sort of buttery, dark chocolate and oily. That is all fine but lasts only for a short second before it turns spirity and bitter. Water might help? Not much but it streches the initial flavors a second or two. And the water takes down the spirity notes a bit. But all in all it is a light starter malt, and lacks the complexity of the single malts. I hope so.

Well balanced blend when diluted: 4


Tobermory 14yo 1995-2009 46% Flickenschield

I don't know much about the bottler Flickenschield, but I have seen some of their bottles for sale at online auctions. A dark version this one, could come from a sherry cask? But I guess they would have mentioned that on the bottle then, in these days of massive legend information. It smells Extremely light, much lighter than the blend, cinnamon tea and incense from a lighter cigarette, Prince Mint? Very withdrawn, but there are some notes of oloroso sherry in there. Needs tome to open up. The taste is perfectly sweet and balanced sherried whisky, oloroso style. Reminds me of the old Highland Park 12 back when there were bigger sherry amounts in the batches. Though the nose promises nothing, the palate delivers on a high note. The taste is of cinnamon, honey, coriander, lemon peel, toasted rye and just a small phenolic zing in the finish.

Simply the best Tobermory I've had up until now, by far: 8


Tobermory 10yo 46.3% OB

The new standard expression of Tobermory, bottled at 46.3%. I remember being sort of disappointed with the rather bland 40%-bottling a while back, so hopefully the risen abv. will bring a new dimension to this one. Another light nose, but not as odorless ad the Flickenschield bottling. Smells instantly herbal and grassy, with some vanilla and honey too. Where does this sweet honey-flavor come from? Interesting, almost like a Talisker without the peat, and I do like a Talisker. The taste is, well, on the contrary to the nose, it does have a bit, I'd think there were peat in this one if I didn't know any better. Sweet, grassy, herbal and oily at first, then develops into a more sort of coffee and spirity thing. caramel, coffee and gasoline?
Maybe water will help. Yes it does, not in the initial palate, but as with the blend it does restrain the spirity notes.

A good whisky with a kick to it, and some off-notes unfortunately: 4.5


Ledaig 18yo 1974-1992 43% OB

I don't think I have come across such an old Ledaig or Tobermory yet, and according to word of mouth, the Ledaig and Tobermory bottlings of past days could be pretty miserable. But 18 years old should give time for improvement? By the way, this is one of two 18yo Ledaigs I'm trying today. Pale color. Smells heavy and peaty, greasy to be precise. This reminds me sort of smoking a cigar over frying bacon. I'll give it that it's definitively not something you find in many other single malts. Oh yeah, this whisky talks. The taste is again fat, oily, thick, greasy if you know what I mean. And it's peaty, after the bold sensation of deep fried fat it's got another thing coming, a straight and kind of light peatiness. What I'm concerned, this one plays ball with the big peaty guys (Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Talisker) any day of week.

Not refined in any way, just bloody good whisky that handles the peat beautifully: 7.5


Ledaig 18yo 55.2% James MacArthur's

The only cask strength of this session, last sip showed that Ledaig really can handle a low strength, but what will happen when upped to cask strength. Same age, 18 years, maybe ledaig is a whisky that's just being bottled at a too young age? The good thing about James MacArthur's is that they often buy very good casks, but they keep to cheaper casks, which makes for an affordable IB. I do like it a lot as I can buy just about any bottling from JM and expect a good ordinary refill CS bourbon-casked whisky. It smells peaty and spirity alingside some lemon peel, vanilla and egg creme. Give it time and the peat really bursts out. The taste is extremely peaty and it burns, acidic, peat and peppery. It's much more extreme than the 1974. It's gonna need some water. Water makes it very sweet, apricot marmalade and honey melon. The peat disappears when diluted.

Try it undiluted and you'll be overwhelmed, dilute and be bored: 5.5

5 Highland Parks from 5 different IB's

The last Highland Park session was a cracker with only G&M-bottlings scoring about 8.5 in average, and especially the ones from the old Cask-series stood out. Now let's see what some other IB's and one OB for "Master of Malt"(I don't think they bottle themselves) can bring to the table.
At least, if this goes as planned, and I hope so, I won't have to reconsider Highland Park again anytime soon, as its now once again shining as one of my favorites.


Highland Park 22yo 1987-2009 43% Signatory Vintage

A very light colored Highland Park, as are all the ones I'm about to try in this vertical. I have always felt HP did best when there were at least some sweet sherry wood involved, but let's see. It smells sweet, eucalyptus, heather and vanilla, newspapers, needs time. Opens up more and more as it minutes goes by. But it also gets more subtle, strange. The taste is amazing, maybe one of the smokiest HP's I've tried, lots of vanilla, smoke, peat, ashes, herbal, lots of dried herbs like coriander, mint and basils. This is almost like smelling the scent of a finer society lady before going down to find she got the biggest balls of all. Extraordinary to say the least, and my rather sick comparison aside, it's a nice and powerful whisky. It could use some water, let's see. Now it got more of the usual honey-flavor that I often find in HP's but also some wax, reminds me a bit of Clynelish.

A thunderbolt Islander: 6


Highland Park 16yo 1989-2005 46% Cask & Thistle

I cannot recall ever trying a Cask & Thistle bottling before, so why not start with a Highland Park? This one is very pale in color, similar to a youngster. A rounder and lighter smell on this one, freshly washed linens and creme fraiche. Sort of fat and fresh, hard to describe, oily perhaps. The taste is burnt and peated, more of a coastal character. Almost like a caol Ila, or even a Laphroaig just less iodine. It needs water as it comes of a bit monotonous. There are some greens and some herbal notes here yet, but the water makes it lots sweeter and much more bitter. Lime juice and sugar, Caipirinha anyone?

A playful whisky that swims extremely well: 6.5


Highland Park 14yo 1995-2009 46% Murray McDavid Mission

This one is from a refill sherry cask, a light pink hue on it. Looks like some rosé wine. It smells much lighter that the 22yo and 16yo. Maybe the sherry cask has killed a bit of the initial flavors? Even when given time it is a lot lighter than I'd expect from anything above 20%abv. Theres some rubber and onion to be found. The taste is more in the lines of a dry vermouth than a sherry, at least a sweet sherry. Fino refill? Is it good? Maybe if you are into the cask experimentations going on at Bruichladdich a while back. I remember they could be very good, but far too often winded up a bit of a mismatch together with the peatiness of the malt. I have to give this a thumb down, but I'm sure there are someone that'll love it out there.

The prior Bourbon-matured ones were way better, unexpected: 2


Highland Park 13yo 57% Master of Malt

One bottled for (or by) online retailer Master of Malt. A nice online shop, a bit pricey but with an excellent selection. This one is as pale as white wine. I have had a Highland Park bottled at 100 proof from G&M in the past, and from what I can remember, it was a very good dram. It smells peaty and rubber boots, a bit waxy and salty, I can already tell this is going to needs some water. The initial taste is burnt and sweet, toasted chillies and gorgonzola bacterials. Water brings it down a bit, and now its quite similar to the 16yo from C&T. All in all, the quality of the malt does most of the talking here. And it is a very good malt, much more peated than older versions.

A fine whisky, a small peat monster: 5.5


Highland Park 12yo 1979-1991 65.2% Cadenhead's

I have always been a big fan of Cadenhead's as I find they have stock of many whiskies that other IB's yet are trailing to get. Say the Fettercairn or the Glenfarclas. And the %abv. of 65%+ I have only found one place else, at the also very excellent James MacArthur's. Good bottlers that aren't afraid to bottle at young age when the whisky is in its prime rather than letting it rest for extreme pricing at higher age contra good quality(of course not always the case). This one is pale and gets hazy straight away. Smells minty, very dry, cinnamon, heather, honey, spring onions and licorice. The taste is BIG!!!, Honey and vanilla with huge whiffs of peat and coastal salty character. Cream crackers, parmesan and lots of iodine.

This is a malt that's gonna challenge your tastebuds to the max: 7.5