Aberlour A'bunadh

Very nice review. I agree with a lot that you wrote, though I wonder if my assessment would be as detailed.

This batch was the 7th that I tried (up to 9 now) and I would place it in the top 4-5. It is certainly better than the 46 but I preferred the 44.

A lovely Scotch, for sure, but upon finishing my bottle of batch#45 I guess the conclusion I came to is that I am not one of the big fans of A'bunadh.

It's big & bold, but I tend to prefer the more complex (older) sherry bombs...

Lovely review, @Victor, many thanks for sharing your thoughts on Aberlour A'bunadh. I feel a bit the same like @Jules: A'bunadh has never really worked for me, too boisterous for my palate, and I have tried a number of different batches. But many, many malt maniacs all over the planet do like this one a great deal, so here's to all of them: slainte! Oh, and all the best for a very happy New Year!

Thanks for the review Victor, always great to hear opinions on a scotch I like from someone who writes such great reviews. I haven't tried batch 45, but love the other batches I have had. I am definitely an A'Bunadh maniac!

Gentlemen, thank you all for your comments. I do love several of the batches of A'bunadh quite a lot, while others are not nearly as appealing to me. While I am very much a fan of the big bold flavours, and am not repulsed by many of the flavours of the younger whiskies, Aberlour A'bunadh is typically for me a niche player: there is a particular mood or frame of mind which comes up once in a while for which it is perfectly suited. The rest of the time it lies fallow on my shelf. I think of almost everything in the whisky world this way: there is a key which works for every given changing mood. I like the enormous variety available to us.

To match the whisky to the mood requires knowing the whiskies very well...and knowing our own moods very well.

In the cask strength heavy sherry arena I regularly stock Macallan Cask Strength, Amrut Intermediate Sherry, and Aberlour A'bunadh. Hopefully relatively soon Kavalan Solist Sherry and Glendronach Cask Strength will join them. And a nice sulphur-free Mortlach would be welcome.

In the non-cask strength heavy sherry arena I stock Glenmorangie Sonnalta PX, Glenfarclas 15, and Macallan 12 Sherry Oak. Would I like a few more of this style? Sure. But I am not buying any Glendronach without tasting the batch first. I have not liked the quality of the sherry on the samples of Glendronach 15 Revival I have had.

Kavalan Solist is magnificent...but hard on the budget at least in Ontario (>$200). I have never tried a sherry-matured Amrut, though I think that would be quite interesting (I am sitting on an unpened portonova though).

I loved Batch 44 of this (like @nozinan I suppose) - I've been sipping away at that over the past month.

@JasonHambrey

Yes the 44 was definitely above average. All I have left of my bottle is the 2 oz archived bottle I put away. I do have a spare though.

Likely I'll end up giving that one to my friend if he manages to get re-elected 2 more times (into the 44th parliament) unless I do better next time.

I do hear (from my MP friend) that my bottle of batch 42 was exceptional when opened.

Would you say it is Klaek?

Klaek?

I would say über-klaek in this instance because of a score in the 90's.

@marino has proved "klaek" to be a score in the high 70's to low 80's.

Batch #45 is is a great A'bunadh, an excellent example of an über-klaek sherry cask matured single malt.

@JasonHambrey, while you were at the North Pole during the month of December, you might have missed an amusing review which produced extreme hilarity on the comment thread....good to have you back from the deep freeze.

connosr.com/reviews/aberlour/…

@paddockjudge thanks for the link and remarks - much appreciated! Happy New Year to all!

How I wish I loved this one, after my effort of getting a bottle. I pick this malt apart each time, trying to find the love, but my score always ranges between 79 and 87max. @Jules ' comments resonated with me, and @Victor 's own comment may have highlighted the dividing line: "am not repulsed by many of the flavours of the younger whiskies". I guess that's not me. I'm drinking the 45 again at this moment, and while the nose is nice, the palate just bites me with 'young-ish bitters'. Like @Pierre_W implied, I guess I just have to accept being jealous of all the people who seem to get such pleasure from this one. If only it were so easy....

@vanPelt, I've still got plenty of Glenmorangie Sonnalta PX for you to chow down on, if I ever see you around here.

@vanPelt so true - it's a scotch I really WANTED to like, but you just can't force it. I always reach for the GlenDronach 15' (if we are talking similar price-bracket) instead, and, although a much milder sherried dram, it just satisfies me far more than the boisterous A'bunadh. The newer Benromach 100°proof 10yo is another that I would prefer over it, actually.

If only the Benromach 100 proof were available in Canada...

Nozinan, are you getting the version labeled "Imperial Proof"? It sounds like it's the same stuff.

No, we get nothing even close to the elixir so beautifully described in his review (and I think video) by @MaltActivist

@Nozinan, I just saw today that the Imperial Proof is finally arriving: reddit.com/r/Scotch/…

I would never compare it to the A'bunadh, though; it's not a sherry bomb. I have the 100proof and find it dry and herbal (besides smoky).

Anyway, since I'm here, an interesting thing (to me) is that seem to enjoy the A'bunadh 45 when it's my first sip of the day, and the sip even tinier than usual, and the whisky is cold. But it doesn't hold up at all after the palate's been dried a little bit and the liquid is warmed (and then water brings out the worst in it).