A'Bunadh batch 46

45 is being drained from the LCBO. I fear this decent dram is about to die out. There doesn't seem any evidence that there is a forthcoming batch 46.

Notwithstanding that this could nicely increase the value of my dozen or so bottles in reserve, this is clearly concerning.

Have we reached "peak scotch"?

And does anyone care?

@Nozinan let's hope it's not the end. They are cutting back on the ABV for the rest of their range, so there is something going down. I've got a unopened 44 now. Very typical I find something I like and they stop or limit production (like putting it out of my price range in the future).

The higher ABV matters. It's part of what makes A'bun A'bun. I will never ever buy a bottle at a significantly lower ABV. That's a guarantee. If Aberlour cheats us out of what we are used to, it will lose our patronage. I have an extra bottle of Batch 39 in my safe. Now, I'm likely to keep it unopened for a while in anticipation of whether the ABV plummets in 46+ batches. One thing is likely: if the ABV goes down, the price will not. It's called "fishing." Get enough people on the hook, and then reel 'em in like habitual consumers who don't pay attention to what they are buying. Heck, some folks might even like the lower ABV so they don't need to fuss about how much water to add. To those feckless consumers of mediocrity, I most certainly do not tip my felt top hat. I'm not a huge fan of A'bun, but I do admire this scotch's integrity, at least up until now.

Can you even call it cask strenght if it has been watered down? I'm sure there is a way!

Let's not get too cynical. The A'Bunadh has been a consistently good expression for a while. There is no indication from Pernot-Ricard that they plan to release it as a less than cask strength bottling. The whole point of it is as a CS.

If the ABV goes down, it could be batch variation. I would be ok if it were 56%, as long as it's still the cask strength, which can be influenced by many things. The key is not the ABV, it's the concentration of flavour. You can have an old Whisky with a CS ABV of 45% and can have more flavour than a younger "craft" Whisky diluted to 46%.

My big concern is that they may not have the stocks to continue putting out as much A'Bunadh as demand requires. This may mean fewer batches, shortages at times, and, in all likelihood, higher prices for the same quality (or a younger product pushed out early, like the 38). Or, they may decide to focus on other parts of the range and discontinue it.

Then our stocks would gain value, and instead of selling my bottles, I would end up drinking more expensive Whisky....

@Nozinan You may already know this by now, but batch #46 has recently been released - and fear not, it's bottled at 60.4% ABV, so they haven't watered it down.

: )

@Whisk

That's a relief..... But how does it taste? And will I be able to hold off buying it? I already have such a backlog of batches, buying ahead will become a storage issue.

So Wikipedia says 46 is released, but I haven't found any online shops.

Anyone?

@Nozinan not really close to where you are at, but it's available here in Holland.

shop.whiskybase.com/43906/aberlour-abunadh-batch-46