Tasting 4 Aberlours

Trying two older CS Aberlours against two very young ones from the A'bunadh-series. It'll be fun!











Aberlour 20yo 1976-1996 51% OB for Cairngorm Whisky Centre

It seems Cairngorm Whisky Centre was put to sleep by their owners back in 2010. Golden brown hue. It smells of rich toffee and creamy sherried notes. Sweet sherry, cinnamon, honey, caramel, milk chocolate, roasted almonds is some of the notes I get from this one. The taste is marzipan, cinnamon, cocoa, caramel, honey, very clean and sweet, with a small peat nuance in the finish. To provide this with a top score it would've needed a bit more of a finish, but the nose and palate are superb.

One of my fav Aberlours: 8


Aberlour 21yo 1989-2011 57.5% Cadenhead's

From a bourbon hogshead, we don't see many of those from Aberlour these days. The color is white wine. It smells of vanilla and peppery notes, rhubarb, root vegetables, beetroot and parsnip in particular. Parmesan cheese as well. The taste is thick, sweet, oaky, vanilla, cream liqueur, eggnog, spearmint, chalk. It's a nice one, and very unusual from this distillery, but the concentrated thick sweetness on the palate makes it a "must have" whisky in my book. The finish is peppery, burnt, and a bit drying.

I need to get a bottle of this, just because of the palate: 8


Aberlour NAS 59.8% OB A'bunadh batch#37

I got 1cl of this added to a purchase I made at Loch Fyne Whiskies, much recommended web-shop. Or if in Scotland to visit in person. I've never ever tasted a sample this small, so let's see how this goes, please don't take these notes as a full whisky-experience. Hmm... When pouring it shows its about 0.5cl, but I love a good challenge. The color is golden brown. It smells of ashes, dry sherry, cinnamon, egg yolks, resinous, ammonium, bath soap, mustard, heavy sherry influence as one could imagine. The taste is burnt, cinnamon, orange zest, honey, licorice, coriander, thyme, sweet, rhubarb, a bit bitter and drying. Now here's my problem, this I think is a whisky that could've worked perfectly with water added, but now there's nothing left to add it to. So, I won't provide any scores for this one, but I must say that the little I got was very good.


Aberlour NAS 59.8% OB A'bunadh batch#10

The earliest of the batches I've tried. The color is golden brown. It smells of leather, tobacco, sherry sweetness, oaky, cinnamon, caramel, rice vinegar, plums, coca cola. The taste is thick, ammonium, oloroso sherry, spicy, hot spicy cinnamon, chillies, very powerful, lets add some water. Now it turns sweeter, and oakier, more peppery. I have my suspicions these A'bunadhs are drawn from very small casks. I would not recommend water to this one peppery notes overruns the nice oloroso notes as it initially becomes a bit sweeter than when bare, but after that the oakiness and peppery notes overruns the nice oloroso notes.

Without water I'll give it no less than: 8



Next tasting: Starting a new line of peaty sessions with some Arran (?...)