Aberlour A'bunadh

The bottle is about dry, so I figured I better write its review before it was too late. While the bottle has been open for almost a year, it still remains in tack and is still very enjoyable. It was good if not great right out of the gate (maybe a little hot on the nose however), but it seemed to improve as I worked my way through the bottle. Now it’s getting time to finish it off before I think twice about my score. I hate to see this one go; hopefully, its replacement will be just as tasty, whatever batch it may be.

This was first tasted neat in a Glencairn glass with 3 to 4 drops of water added later. This bottle was batch 34, bottled at 59.5 % ABV. It has been open for about 10 months and about 2 inches remains in the bottle.

Nose: Moderate amount of alcohol (up front, however not overpowering even at 59.5%), lots of sherry, vanilla, spicy (maybe cinnamon spiced apples), trace amount of smoke (water seemed to bring out the smoke more).

Taste: sherry, dark chocolate, spicy, slightly salty, a little oaky, more sherry, dark berries of some sort (black berries?), vanilla (not as much as nose suggests), and more sherry. Water seemed to round all the flavors out, cutting down the spiciness a hair; however, the sherry is still in the spotlight.

Finish: Long, mouth coating creaminess (long legs and oily look in glass), lingering sherry, and dark chocolate again (more of the slight bitterness of a good dark chocolate), the sherry spiciness really stays on the tongue. I picked up more vanilla with water.

Balance: While the sherry is up front, there is a nice balance of sweetness and spiciness going on. At such a high ABV you would expect the alcohol to overpower everything but it doesn’t. Water opens it up nicely, but I prefer it neat.

I’ve really enjoyed this whisky. It was my first cask strength whisky and I’m convinced that unfiltered and full strength is more than just another gimmick. While I’ve only been drinking single malts for about 3 years or so, this has to be my favorite whisky I’ve tasted since making the switch from bourbon to single malts. I’m sure there are better whiskies out there, so I couldn’t give it a perfect 100, but it ranks as my top scoring whisky to date!