A Scot on Scotch reviews the much-loved Aberlour A’Bunadh Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
In my last review, I talked about the phenomenon (controversy?) of no age statement (NAS) whiskies. For the record, I am open-minded about such things and largely see any age statement as simply one factor in assessing a whisky’s potential. I’d rather the age was mentioned because the more information about the liquid in the bottle, the better, but there have been some exceptional drams over the years that fell into the NAS category.
One of the best examples of a NAS whisky is Aberlour’s A’Bunadh – a cask strength, sherry bomb from Speyside. There can be no accusation that Aberlour jumped on the NAS bandwagon here because A’Bunadh first appeared way back in 1997. The name translates from Gaelic as ‘Of the Origin’ and the distillers intention was to create an Aberlour with a flavour profile comparable to the whiskies of years gone by. Apparently maintenance work in the 1970s uncovered a time capsule buried in the still-room, containing a newspaper from 1898 and a bottle of whisky… A’Bunadh is an attempt to recreate that whisky.
Aberlour Distillery dates back to 1879 when it was built by James Fleming. The founder’s grave can be seen in the local cemetery which sits opposite his distillery. Today, Aberlour falls under the ownership of Pernod Ricard who have a wide range of single malt expressions on the market. Joining the aforementioned A’Bunadh, are whiskies at 10, 12, 15, 16 and 18 years old.
The A’Bunadh is released in batches. I happen to be reviewing Batch 49. It has been matured exclusively in Oloroso sherry butts and was bottled at a cask strength of 60.1%, without the use of chill filtering or colourant. I tend not to discuss colour much (what’s the point when so many malts fake it with the use of caramel E150a) but the appearance of this dram is quite something. At a glance, you could almost be forgiven for thinking it was a glass of red wine.
Smell: The nose is full of burnt toffee, glacé cherries and orange liqueur. There’s also caramel and cinnamon with a wee touch of marzipan and the old sherry bomb cliche – Christmas Cake.
Taste: Oranges and festive spices. Grape juice. Toffee. Cherries and almonds. Something of an Amaretto vibe, at points. There’s a great depth of flavour and being non-chill-filtered, it thoroughly coats the mouth.
Thoughts: To put it simply, A’Bunadh is one of the best value drams on the market. Exclusive sherry maturation usually inflates a bottle’s price. High strength ABV usually inflates a bottle’s price but here this sits at £45 – £50 a bottle. Sometimes less. It could probably retail for double that amount and still seem a good purchase.
Back to the age statement issue – I think it would be a bit ridiculous to suggest that this whisky would be improved by having an age statement on the label. Sure, it would be nice to know more about it make but does that lack of knowledge really hinder our enjoyment? When you get whisky this good at such a reasonable price, I’m not sure what’s on the label really matters and with that, we get to the heart of the issue. If distillers feel they can’t commit to an age statement then they should be making every effort to ensure the quality of their liquid is up to scratch. Young is OK, so long as it’s good.
After all, Scotch whisky is now in competition with new distilleries all over the world. Shelf space is at a premium and customers are often seduced by shiny new brands. Young, under-matured spirit risks not only a brand’s reputation but that of Scotch in general and that, at a time when Scotch should be showing why it is still the best spirit in the world, would be unacceptable.
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