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