Aberlour A'bunadh batch 45 or 47?

I have an interest in this too. As I've mentioned before, I drink the batch that matches my age every year, not before. This is a 2 year (2 batch) tradition bug I have the 46 and 47 pending.

In the past I've used more than one bottle per year as it is a popular one for guests and when my whisky club meets. That's ok because I have about 6-7 extra bottles of earlier batches to go through, and I now have a larger variety of stuff yo go through so maybe the extra will last longer. But in a decade I won't have any spares to fall back on.

And what if I don't get to buy ahead every batch? Or don't choose to (46 had some bad reviews but I justified getting it by using the receipt to return a spare 36 I didn't want, and 48 got panned by Ralfy)? By the time I open my batches they'll no longer be available to buy spares if I like them. Then I may eventually get to a situation where I have to wait 1 or 2 years to hit the next batch and nothing to open in the meantime.

So I figured I'd best buy an extra of batches that get a lot of really good reviews, and trust my luck. Right now 47 is available. 45 WAS good but not as stellar in my opinion as some others here have said. And I don't have a spare. I've read some good reviews of the 47, but is it an outstanding batch that I should have more of? I'd really like to know...

Should I respond to this...? I had the same question and ended up getting both bottles; a few weeks ago I made my first H2H-- but need to come back to it (and base it on more than 1 dram). Also, my input is not so valuable because I'm no expert on A'bunadhs in particular (only tried 38 and 41 before), and actually I look to you guys to help me with that. So I'm a novice in this area. Well, it's all subjective anyway. But for what it's worth, here are the differences I see looking at my notes:

• At full strength (although I prefer adding maybe 10 drops of water to A'bunadhs): I call the 45 softer in flavor and more vanilla-y although with more noticeable ethanol burn; the 47 seems to have more citrus, honey, and ginger. I.e., at full strength you could call the 45 smoother but the 47 more interesting.

• With water, my notes call the 45 more leather/sour-cherry and the 47 more cocoa-toffee.

Both, of course, have a lot of similarities, especially almond/nougat-nuttiness, marshmallow-vanillaness, and what I call sour-cherry. In this first tasting, I could not choose a winner, but wrote "89?" for both of them. So I don't have a final verdict yet, and I'd like the chance to try them with just a couple drops more water. I will say that I expected to like the 45 more, based on what I'd read online earlier, but found myself liking the toffee-nuttiness of the 47.

This goes in the direction I was leaning (but still hesitate, in the face of such positive 45 reviews): www.whiskybase.com/search

If you believe it (sort by ratings), then the 47 is the best thing to happen since 42 :-)

Ralfy gave the 48 an 84 youtube.com/watch/…

@rigmorole But the 48 probably has as much in common with the 47 as the 46 does with the 45....

Tough decision. I got the Ardbeg Oogie when I was at the shop because it was at a great price $75 and last one on the shelf. Still couldn't decided on the A'bunadh. The only "sherry" whisky I've had was glenfarclas 10 which I loved and glendronach 12 which I didn't like. I love highland park 12 which has the sherry influence. I eventually have to try the A'bunadh, maybe I'll try the 47 at the lower price. Is A'bunadh more similar to a glenfarclas or completely different?

@Malt-Nuisance

The lower price is likely because it's more available, and likely have little bearing on quality. The 45 has been around longer and is in fact becoming harder to find (pretty much gone in Toronto).

My big question, is while there remain 47s should I pick up a spare, knowing I won't taste it for 2 years. I guess I could always buy a current batch in 2 years and use the receipt to return the extra 47 if I don't like it...

@Nozinan yea you should get the 47 spare and when the new batch comes out see what the reviews are on it. You never know with the quality now a days. Demand going up, older stocks diminishing, younger whiskies vetted I the NAS.

@Malt-Nuisance

I did.....hope it was worth it.

@Malt_Nuisance , it is too bad we couldn't convince you to get one of these A'bunadhs, here. You can find my answer to your Glenfarclas question in some of my recent reviews of the 105s.

Well, if anyone out there is still wondering about this, here are my follow-up notes after a re-tasting. First of all, I should note that I found them both to burn at cask strength, BUT they burn in different ways. If you will drink at cask strength, I found batch 45 preferable: It is more like a soft vanilla (accented with lemon), and the burn is more ethanol-y (can be ignored). In contrast, I found the 47 to have more burn coming from sour orange and spicy-hot cinnamon/ginger. (I also need to note that I am more sensitive than others when it comes to noticing sourness AND spiciness-- but I think you'd find the same trend.) With substantial water (e/g/ down to 50% ethanol), the picture changed. Batch 45 was less interesting, leaving an impression of light vanilla with some lime-rind; whereas batch 47 gave a richer impression of caramel-nut and orange (and still some gingery spice). The overall quality is very similar, but they do taste different. For my own tastes, I would drink more dilute to avoid big burn; so I would gravitate towards the 47 by just a tiny hair.

Incidentally, someone else has just today reviewed the 47 AND the 45 before that. SO for another interpretation...: reddit.com/r/Scotch/…

@Malt-Nuisance The Abunadh and farclas 10 dont have much in common. In my opinion there is no comparing these. They rate about 10 points apart. the farclas 10 has sherry influence while the abundh is a Monster not for the faint of taste. The only way to say it is that Abunadh (at least batches 45 and 46) are sherry anomalies in the sherry world. The only other Sherry anomalies (super unique and one of a kind) that I've been able to find so far has been the single cask releases from GlenDronach and the Family casks from Glenfarclas.

Good luck

@Malt-Nuisance. The other this I'd like to emphasize is don't get too crazy about which batch to get if you are new to whisky. They are all excellent and fairly close in profile. I would go with the lower price one for now and have fun with it. Any batch number is going to blow the Glenfarclas 10 away.

Thanks all. Don't worry I will get my hands on A'bunadh soon!