Whisky Sampling: The Aberlour Tweet Tastings!

The five Aberlour malts!

The Aberlour Tweet Tasting has been and is now, sadly, gone!

It took place on the evening of December 2nd (although some people were sampling in the middle of the afternoon because of the time-zones!)

The malts sampled were:-

Aberlour 12 Year Old Double Cask Matured

Aberlour 16 Year Old Double Cask Matured

Aberlour A’bunadh Batch 45

Aberlour 18 Year Old

Aberlour 12 Year Old Non Chill Filtered

If you want to catch up on what all the tasters had to say (and there was quite a few of them!) you can view the tweets by searching for the hash tag #AberlourTT on Twitter.

So, what did I think?

Here are my tasting notes … and the one which was my favourite on the night!

Tasting Notes – Aberlour 12 Year Old Double Cask Matured (40%)

The 12 year-old expression takes Aberlour’s raw spirit and deftly softens it through double cask maturation.

Traditional oak and seasoned Sherry butts are both used and the mellowed spirits are combined to deliver a subtly balanced flavour.

Nose: Sweet, citrus, hint of apple. Aromas of banoffee pie!

Palate: Luscious raisins mixed with spice. Light feel on the palate. Chocolatey and not too much sherry.

Finish: Nice long spice finish with a bit of sweetness! Quite a fiery finish at the very end.

Overall: Some debate was given over to the fact that this was a 40% bottling as opposed to the previous 43%. But my opinion was it mattered little, it was still a nice dram and the 3% was not missed!

Tasting Notes – Aberlour 16 Year Old Double Cask Matured (43%)

The 16 year Aberlour in a combination of first fill oak Bourbon casks and the finest Sherry butts.

Nose: Raisins with a well tempered spiciness.

Palate: Light on the palate with sweet Xmas raisins – Yum! Chocolate cream.

Finish: A lot less spice on the 16YO finish which surprises me after the 12YO. Tobacco taste at the end.

Overall: A great, well balanced malt. Perfect for those who prefer less spiciness.

Tasting Notes – Aberlour A’bunadh Batch 45 (60.2%)

Carefully made by hand, Aberlour A’bunadh is a unique cask strength whisky which has achieved cult status among whisky connoisseurs.

A’bunadh means ‘the original’ in Gaelic and is made in homage to Aberlour’s founder, James Fleming, using only traditional methods without chill filtration or other modern processes.

Nose: Lovely sherry aromas mixed with rum and orange – almost like Cointreau! And a hefty alcohol hit!

Palate: Sweet, thick on the palate, rich Xmas cake!

Finish: Fantastic spice but not too over the top. Short tannin finish with exploding spiciness!

Overall: The 60% alcohol is remarkably un-bruising! An amazing malt!

Tasting Notes – Aberlour 18 Year Old (43%)

Matured in the highest quality casks, where it develops deep Bourbon and Oloroso Sherry flavours, this is the richest and most indulgent Aberlour expression.

Nose: Wood notes, rich toffee.

Palate: Light fruits and sweet – not as rich as A’bunadh.

Finish: Very short finish with muted spice.

Overall: Attractive sherried flavour throughout, very smooth!

Tasting Notes – Aberlour 12 Year Old Non Chill Filtered (48%)

A bit of a mystery malt here!

Apparently the Aberlour 12 Year Old Non Chill Filtered has gone down a storm in the States when it was sampled there a few weeks ago.

Some of the tweeters thought that we should be able to stand a bit of cloudiness in our malts now (because of the abscence of chill filtering) and we should embark on an education program to convince the buying public!

Nose: Vanilla, slight caramel, bit of chocolate in there.

Palate: Tasty sherry n’ spice, hints of wood and rich fruits and pepper!

Finish: Smooth, short finish, pleasantly spicy aftertaste.

Overall: I think this would make a very popular addition to the Aberlour range. Very morish!

My Favourite On The Night

Out of the 5, I think it’s got to be the Aberlour A’bunadh.

An absolute powerhouse of a malt that provides a complete taste sensation while being a gentle giant (belying the whopping 60.2% that it delivers.)

And to top it all, it comes in at a fantastic price!

Many thanks to The Whisky Wire (@TheWhiskyWire) for a great dram evening and the team at Richmond Towers (@DrinksPRAgency) for sending the samples!

ABERLOUR is available to buy from these Whisky Merchants:-