Aberlour 15 Year Old Double Cask Matured

Aberlour 14 Year Old 2000 Malts of Scotland ‘46’

The autumn release of Malts of Scotland has arrived. That means work for me. I will open the debates with the first Aberlour from this bottler in their so-called ‘46’-series. You have guessed it: the malt is cut to the drinking strength of 46% ABV. I am sure this was a refill bourbon hogshead, for it is the palest Aberlour I have ever seen. The...

Score 77/100

Aberlour 12 Year Old Double Cask Matured

Once I got past the maltiness and sweet sherry in the nose (and truly there isn’t an obstructive amount of either) I found some surprisingly light, citrusy notes, with grapefruit in the lead. The body’s soft and smooth, so smooth I found that some flavors keep slipping past analysis. But once I caught up, I noted lemon peel, apricot, and maple...

Score 50/100

Aberlour 10 Year Old

I have been waiting to try this one for quite a while now and finally my dreams were answered by a client who sent me one as a thanks !! They say the best things in life are free and this Scotch has been no exception for me. Nose: Strong whiff of the darkest of chocolate with a scatter of cherries and cherry stones along with the faintest waft of...

Score 83/100

Aberlour SMWS 54.75 Refined, refreshing and redolent

My third bottle opened from the SMWS (I finished it at the weekend) is a 16 year old Aberlour matured for most of it's life in a refill bourbon cask and then moved to a heavily charred hogshead for the last couple of years. Heavily charred casks have become de rigeur with Scottish distilleries lately. There use is trumpeted as something...

Score 80/100