Aberlour A'bunadh

I recently acquired and reviewed a bottle of Batch 34 which I hardly added any water to and found it to be excellent stuff. I have just discovered three bottles of Batch 31 and 30 (batch 35 is now out in the UK) gathering dust in a supermarket and decided to grab em...

The bottle I opened from Batch 31 differs from 34 quite a lot: gentler on the nose, not so overwhelming with oil, alcohol and sherry (unless I am becoming more resistant) but has a gentler mocha, almonds and cherry vanilla scent.

Curiously my first few drams from this were better with water (I always use half caps of Evian) unlike B34 and really opened the whisky: Chocolate-raisins, teak, oak, definitely some older whisky in there, limes, burnt-citrus, floral notes, and burnt-Bourbon. The signature long drying finish is superb and consistent of alcohol at this level being balanced and crafted by experts.

I am going to keep B30 (59.4%) unopened until the end of the year as have noted that the guys on Malt Maniacs have rated B30 very highly.

I haven't tried Ardbeg Uigedail yet but will do so during winter, until then A'bunadh is looking like it going to go unchallenged for my top whisky.