Today I am trying an Aberlour and to be honest I didn’t tasted a lot of those in the past! The last one was an Abunad’h and it was decent, so today I hope that I will taste a great one!
Aberlour 18yo 2002-2020 (62.6%, OB for LMDW, 1st Fill Sherry Hogshead, cask #2575, 252 bottles)
Colour: Mahogany with copper hues.
Nose: The alcohol is clearly present in there. A lot of solvants, wood varnish, noble wood, plums, date, leather, blueberries, cherries and hints of raspberries. It’s a pleasant nose.
Mouth: The alcohol integration is not good at all but the texture is oily. The alcoholic notes overwhelms everything but here it is: Cherries, raspberries, blueberries, dried figs, bitter cocoa, liquorice, leather and wood dryness.
Finish: Long. Bitter cocoa, dusty leather, blueberries, raspberries and cherries. Hot but still good!
It’s quite a good dram and those sweet berries notes are very appreciable but there is nothing very special in the profile, it reminds me of an simple (but effective) Abunad’h with some improvements here and there but I can’t find any old school sherry style in that malt.
Score: 89
Given the very good press about this bottling I had high expectations but unfortunately this dram was a bit of a deception for me, it’s still good but I did not find anything that great in the glass.
Out of stock and out of the price tag on the second market obviously!
Tasting Bro's 