The Malt Cask

You buy bottles of whisky and you get to know them. Before long, you have bought new ones, some with the same flavour profile as the previous one, some with a completely different taste. It is a truly fascinating thing to be able to try such a varied and extensive range of flavours coming from the malted barley, the distillation process, the length of maturation, the type of wood used, whether it is a full maturation or only a finish... And you reach the stage when you actually start thinking about experimenting yourself. Of course, I have no control whatsoever on any of these parameters, but I can still play with the end result.  It is not the first time I give this a go (as per my previously created A'bunadh 16 or Caol Dronach) and it sometimes works a treat and sometimes leaves me rather disappointed. Today I have decided to follow on in the Sherried/Peated area with a mix of Aberlour A'bunadh and Bowmore No1. Unlike with the previous experiments, I let both malt marry in...

A bit of a different post today as I am not going to review one bottle with the standard depth of information and notes but instead, two bottles that I got to sample a few days ago thanks to a friend of mine. These two bottles are discontinued and pretty rare so I am just going to stick with my overall impression of both. The first one I tried was the Aberlour 25 years old, distilled in May 1988 and bottled in November 2013 by Hunter Laing to commemorate the 15th anniversary of their Old Malt Cask series. This Aberlour was aged cask 13604, a refill hogshead. On the nose, nothing too crazy, some citrus fruit and freshly cut laurel. The palate became much fruitier and tangier with orange and lemon notes as well as fruity starburst sweets. At 52.3% abv, the alcohol is there with a little heat but nothing over the top. A very good whisky that you won't probably find around any time soon... Hunter Laing released 6 Anniversary Old Malt Cask bottles. As well as this Aberlour, t...

Back for a new whisky year with a single malt I have mentioned in previous blog but have still not come round to reviewing, the Aberlour 16. I previously did an experimental review in which I mixed 80% of the 16 with 20% of the A'bunadh to create what I called the  A'bunadh 16 . I did mention at the time that the 16 was, in my mind, lacking something in terms of strength particularly, but I left it there without any more information. That is the reason why I thought it was time to give the 16 its own review. I bought my bottle of 16 about two years ago whilst in France. It was on offer in one of the main supermarket and for the equivalent of £20/£25 at the time, I thought it was worth giving it a try. Being the French version, mine is actually bottled at 43%ABV compared to the 40% versions I found in the UK, so it should be a tad stronger, without blowing your head off like with the A'bunadh. The 16 is 'double matured' whisky which means that it was aged both in ...

I know that in the video I posted yesterday I mentioned I would be back reviewing a single malt in this post, and somehow I did not get it wrong, except it is not going to be a standard single malt review but an experiment review. I was looking for a dram for tonight and came across my Aberlour 16. I have not reviewed it but when I do, I will probably mention that, I my mind, it lacks something, strength, flavour, complexity, particularly as a 16 year old whisky. Now I passed and continued down my cabinet to come across Aberlour A'bunadh. You will remember me mentioning how strong I find it and how much water I tend to add to it to be able to access the flavour in the dram. By this point, I think you know where I am going... Yes, what about mixing both together and see what happens? A weaker one with a stronger one. Is it likely to create a great in-between or is it not likely to work that well. I reckon I am not taking too much of a risk there as they both come from the same dist...

A bit of a 'sherry monster' today, that is to say a heavily sherried whisky which has matured exclusively in ex-sherry casks, and for this particular one, it has been Oloroso casks all along. Aberlour A'bunadh is a name which has come back again and again when I have done some research about sherried whisky. Macallan has always seemed to be some kind of reference as far as sherried whisky go but I still haven't tried any of their bottling. To me, the Macallan hype added to the fact they have now discontinued their aged statement range to replace it by Non Aged Statements (NAS) have meant a serious bump in prices which I am not prepared to pay (for now at least). However, many other distilleries do produce more affordable sherry monsters, such as Glenfarclas (the 15 is on my list of bottles to buy) or Glendronach (which I have tried and will review when I manage to bring my bottles back from France!).  Aberlour is a Speyside distillerie I was already familiar as I hav...