Experimental Whisky: Aberlour 12 Year/Bowmore 12 Year Blend

While, as David D has pointed out, blending single cask releases is closer to how blends are actually made, I like to blend batch releases as well. This is both because they're often what I have open at the time and because it's a lot easier for other people to try making the same blends for themselves, as they are much more likely to be able to get their hands on them than single casks.

This was put together from the ends of my bottles of Aberlour 12 Year and Bowmore 12 Year with an eye towards mellowing the Bowmore peat while emphasizing the sherry cask element of both whiskies.

In all its caramel colored glory

Aberlour 12 Year/Bowmore 12 Year Blend

Nose: softer Bowmore peat, smoldering ashes, charred pine needles, herbal (marjoram, savory), gingerbread, sea air, salty, a touch of ham, overlapping styles of sherry influence, fresh raspberries, maple syrup. After adding a few drops of water, the smoke overtakes the sherry, giving it a drier character, with some incense emerging, and more cured meat.

Taste: slightly thin malt and sherry sweetness up front, darker sherry character and dusty grain around the middle, turning bittersweet near the back with sherry residue, red wine oak tannins, fresh ginger, and mild peat. After dilution, the sherry becomes less bright - but more dominant, with the other elements integrating, the ginger expanding across the palate, and the grain waiting until the end to show up.

Finish: mossy peat, vegetal, fresh malt, moderate oak, lingering sherry and red wine

This is one of those blends that is genuinely greater than the sum of its parts. This rounds off some of the things that I don't like about Aberlour 12 Year and Bowmore 12 Year as single malts, while bringing together their best elements. At 40% it's drinkable, but doesn't lose too much in terms of flavor density. If you have both of these at home, I highly recommend pouring a bit of each together to see what comes out.

Whisky Review: Aberlour 12 Year - 40%

I reviewed Aberlour 12 Year once before, but that was when it was still being bottled at 43%. Since then it has been reformulated downwards to 40%, though I believe everything else has remained the same - the 'double cask matured' statement on the front indicates that it is a mix of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry cask whisky, rather than ex-bourbon cask whisky finished in ex-sherry casks.

Let's see how it holds up.

Aberlour 12 Year

Nose: classic sherry character, green malt with a touch of honey and cotton candy underneath, vanilla, caramel/maple syrup, baking spices, hints of curry powder, and a thin thread of smoke or tar. After adding a few drops of water, the sherry becomes more savory and gives the malt a nutty/roasted/mushroom character, the bourbon cask character becomes more obvious, and some powdered ginger emerges.

Taste: malt sweetness with a thick slab of sherry on top, becoming grainier with raisins, vanilla, oak, and some odd metallic bitterness emerging near the back. After dilution, the sherry becomes more savory and integrates with the malt, giving a less sweet profile overall, with more assertive oak/bourbon cask influence near the back.

Finish: green vanilla malt, sherry residue, moderate oak tannins, continuing metallic bitterness

While there is still a lot to like about Aberlour, the decreased bottling strength has sapped some of its vigor. While the softness at 40% maybe help to bring some new people into the brand, regulars may find that it doesn't have as much density as it once did. Additionally, it has the odd bitterness that I associate with spirits that are reduced to 40% with chill filtration and coloring. While it may have more to do with the strength than the adjustments, it's a little off-putting either way. Given that I haven't heard of any difficulties in maintaining stock on retail shelves, it's hard to see where the pressure to dilute the whisky is coming from other than the eternal desire for better margins.

It's a shame that Pernod Ricard have gone in this direction, as Aberlour 12 Year would have been fairly high on my list of recommended single malts for sherried whisky fans, but at this point I would have a difficult time pointing someone towards it rather than another sherried Speysider like Glenfarclas.

Win Some, Lose Some: Thoughts on the Shift Towards Higher Proof, Non-Chill Filtered Whiskies

There's a lot of changes going on in the scotch whisky business these days. One of the latest trends is for distiller's to revamp their product lines by releasing higher proof (46-50%), non-chill filtered versions of their standard whiskies that were previously bottled at lower (40-43%) proof with chill filtration. Given that whisky enthusiasts have been griping about the lack of heft in many single malts, this is an answer to a lot of requests of the years. However, as I talked a bit about with Michael over at Diving for Pearls, there is one major downside.

In many cases, this change is being carried out by less well-known distilleries such as Bunnahabhain, Aberlour, Tobermory (and their peated Ledaig expression), and Glen Garioch. This helps them to stand out from the crowd and usually brings a certain amount of critical praise. Which is awesome. Better whisky on the market is almost always a good thing.

But here's the downside: almost all of these distilleries have used the relaunches of their product lines to bump up their prices, often significantly. Take, for instance, Aberlour 12. The 43% version has long been an extremely good deal, regularly available for $40 or less. With the release of the new 46%, un-chill filtered version, prices have jumped up to $55 or even more. At that point it's getting really, really close to Aberlour's cask-strength A'Bunadh whisky, which usually runs for about $65. Right now it's fairly common to see all three on the same shelf. The question is, when a potential customer looks at this lineup, which are they going to choose? If I was going to hazard a guess, they're either going to pick the 43% version because it's relatively cheap or the A'Bunadh, because it literally offers a lot more bang for your buck. While there are some significant differences between the two beyond the bottling strength (A'Bunadh is sherry cask only, the 12 Year is a mix of bourbon and sherry cask), I just don't see the 12 Year as being a good value anymore. Even once stocks of the previous 43% version sell out, is the 46% really going to be an attractive proposition?

The other distilleries I mentioned above have also started to push their base 10-12 year old whiskies into the $50-60 range (though Bunnahabhain was always that expensive). To a degree, this just seems to be where scotch whisky is headed. Demand is up, so prices are rising. But I've got to wonder when we're going to cross the threshold when customers start to balk at the prices. It seems especially difficult to tempt prospective buyers to take a risk on an entry-level single malt, doubly so if it's not from a well-known distillery like Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, or Macallan. Even worse, how many new scotch drinkers are going to be put off and stick with blends or just keep drinking other spirits? Personally, I know I wouldn't have even dipped my toes in if it hadn't been for reasonably priced single malts like the 43% version of Aberlour 12 or Glenmorangie Original. At that point, even $30-40 seemed like a bit of a risk for an entire bottle. If the prices had been 50-100% more, it wouldn't have even been a question.

So here's where I stand: I applaud the decision to increase bottling proofs and get rid of chill filtration. However, the price increases are hard for me to swallow. Getting rid of chill filtration means one less step of processing before the whisky is bottled, which should cut costs. Increasing bottling proof does mean that I'm getting more alcohol, but the price increases are much larger than can be justified on those grounds. So as things stand, many of these whiskies have simply priced themselves beyond what I'm willing to pay. And if I'm not buying their entry level whiskies, the odds are that I'm not going to take an even greater risk on their older expressions. Maybe I'm the exception and this is a great route to extra profit. But I can't imagine that I'm the only person looking at the little tags on the shelves of the liquor store and reaching for something else.

Mixing With Malt: Scotch Whisky Cocktails

While scotch whisky is a notoriously difficult spirit to mix with, it just takes a certain amount of care to find ways to make it integrate with other ingredients.

Speyside Sunset
1.5 oz Aberlour 12 Year
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz honey syrup
0.25 oz allspice dram
1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The malty, sherried scotch and allspice twine together on the nose, while a bit of lemon oil and clove poke their heads up. The sip opens with dueling honey sweetness and a bit of sourness from the lemon. The malt whisky and allspice dram appear smoothly near the back of the mouth, with the drink finishing similarly with a slight return of the lemon. Throughout it all, the bitters help to keep the drink from falling apart into disparate pieces.

I wanted to put scotch and allspice dram together. There was a false start, but this version came together beautifully. The lightly sherried Aberlour fits well with the allspice for a lovely sour cocktail.

Ronin
1.5 oz Glenfarclas 12 Year
0.5 oz sweet vermouth
0.25 oz orgeat (B.G. Reynolds)
1 dash Fee's Whiskey Barrel bitters

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

The nose is dominated by the sweet vermouth's wine, with rich almonds from the orgeat, cinnamon from the bitters, and hints of lemon from the twist. The sip is deliciously thick and opens bittersweet from the interaction between the orgeat, bitters, and vermouth. There is also a strong underlying maltiness, which shifts briefly into wine flavors from the vermouth and the whisky's sherry cask aging. There's a sense of something building, then a fantastic wash of cinnamon and chocolate leads into the finish. Just a hint of the Glenfarclas' ginger bite lingers for a good long while.

Once again, I think the bitters really make this drink. I had been trying to think of a way to get Glenfarclas 12 into a cocktail as the flavors are so deliciously rich that I thought they would stand up well. However, the trick was to find a drink that would compliment the whisky without completely overwhelming it. This mashup between a Rob Roy and a Japanese Cocktail seems to have done the trick.

Papa's Crutch
1.5 oz Glenmorangie Original
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice, and strain into a maraschino-rinsed cocktail glass.

The nose is extremely fruity. It reminds me a bit of rhum agricole, with the whisky and maraschino coming together to produce a funky pear note. There's also honied apples, grapefruit, and cherry blossoms. The sip comes a little bit thin with some light apple juice, but then there's a wave of malt, sweet lemon, bitter grapefruit, and funkier flavors from the maraschino. It finishes with honey, almonds and some floral notes.

This drink is right on the edge of being a confused mess. The maraschino and scotch just barely play well with each other, threatening to come to blows. Glenmorangie Original is a relatively light, floral whisky and the interaction with the maraschino brings out a lot of interesting fruits. While not quite as coherent as its Hemmingway Daiquiri inspiration, it's all an exciting ride.

Whisky Review: Speyside Showdown

A few months ago I reviewed three different Speyside cask strength whiskies from Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Macallan. It so happens that I have the 12 year old whiskies from these three distillers as well. They present interesting facets of the way that Speyside whiskies can be produced. So it seemed logical to compare them to each other.

Aberlour 12 Year


Nose: richly fruity - red wine, raisins, raspberry preserves or fruit leathers - slightly sour, creamy sherry, very floral, a wisp of vanilla, nougat and toffee, nutty honey, which becomes sweeter, creamier and more rounded, with more dried fruits, Oloroso sherry, and an even more pronounced floral/perfumed character after adding a few drops of water

Taste: sharp, gingery sweetness up front, ginger continues throughout, fades into mixed creamy oak tannins, pepper, sherry, malt and slightly sour peat, which becomes sugary sweet up front with a slightly diminished ginger bite, gaining heat a bit further back after dilution

Finish: dry chocolate, figs, ginger, peat, sherry, slight bitterness, oak, peanuts and toasted marshmallow

This is the older version of the Aberlour 12 Year, at 43% with chill filtration. It was the first scotch whisky I ever bought. It was on sale in Oregon for $30, which made it the cheapest I could get my hands on. I was completely unprepared for the flavors it presented to me, especially because of my lack of experience with straight spirits. I tried it a number of different times over the last year or so, but it never really engaged me until recently. It may have just been a matter of trying it in a different setting, but everything finally clicked. Unlike the other two whiskies I'll be reviewing here, Aberlour ages this whisky in both ex-bourbon barrels and used Oloroso sherry casks, then marries the two varieties together before bottling. My guess is that the preponderance of the whisky comes from the ex-bourbon barrels as the sherry influence seems less pronounced than what is found in the other two whiskies. This lets the extremely floral nose of this whisky shine over the other elements. However, the nose is definitely the highlight of this whisky. The palate is pretty decent, but the gingery spiciness is just a bit too dominant and the flavors could do with a touch of a punch-up. But hey, for a $30-40, 12 year old single malt, it's really good. This makes me interested to try the newer version that is bottled at 48% without chill filtration. However that version has also been priced around $55, at which point it's going to be tempted to pony up the extra dollars for Aberlour A'Bunadh. But if I can ever find it closer to $45, I'll be sure to snap up a bottle.

Glenfarclas 12 Year


Nose: raisins, dates, chocolate, malt, raspberry, fresh sherry, honeyed malt underneath, some floral perfume, which becomes slightly diminished, with more honeyed grain, retaining plenty of gentle dried fruit and floral character after dilution

Taste: rich sugar and honey sweetened malt through to mid-palate, ginger spice arrives early and holds throughout, chocolate and dates come in near the back along with pepper, with the ginger bite becoming a little more gentle after adding a few drops of water

Finish: pepper, ginger, chocolate, dates and malt, which becomes slightly bitter like cocoa powder after adding water

Glenfarclas's whisky is aged entirely in ex-sherry casks, and it shows. The flavors are strongly driven by its aging, with the dried fruits and chocolate taking center stage with strong ginger in the palate and finish. However even with all of the sherry presence, it's actually a drier whisky than the Aberlour. Also, the chocolate/date/malt combo reminds me uncannily of Chocolate Brownie Clif Bars. Given that the 'Farclas often has roughly the same price-point as the Aberlour, I think it's close to a toss-up between the two. Go for the Aberlour if you want something with more malt character, go with Glenfarclas if you'd like a more sherried whisky.

Macallan 12 Year


Nose: moderately sweet sherry, PX/Oloroso split, red wine, raisins, raspberries, malt and vanilla underneath, slightly floral, with the raisins being emphasized over the sherry, and more vanilla after adding a few drops of water

Taste: jammy sweetness up front, with a burst of pepper mid-palate and chocolate-covered coffee beans leading into the finish, with more honeyed raisins, but less expansive flavors after dilution

Finish: sherried malt, edging towards bitter cacao

This is where the review gets slightly unfair, because I was tasting from a mini of Mac 12 whereas I own full bottles of the Aberlour and Glenfarclas whiskies. However, Macallan's 12 Year is also hands down the most expensive, reaching a moderately eye-watering price of $55 here in Oregon. I did try to get some breadth by tasting small samples over the course of a few months, so I still feel reasonably comfortable with my assessment. I wouldn't mind giving it another try, but only if I wasn't the one paying. Macallan sherry oak whiskies are, unsurprisingly, aged exclusively in ex-sherry barrels and it really shows. My initial impression was of very high proof sherry, without much else going on. After a couple more tries I was able to find some other smells and flavors, but the sherry still takes center stage. Its flavors were also somewhat less robust than the other two, which, when you also consider the small price differential between Macallan's 12 Year and Cask Strength whiskies, means that I'd strongly recommend buying the Mac CS instead of the 12 year. If you want a lower proof sherry driven whisky, the 'Farclas would be my recommendation, both in terms of flavor and price.

Looking over all three whiskies, I think they're already arranged how I would rank them. The Aberlour edges out the 'Farclas by a bit, having a bit more complexity and a slightly better price point. The Macallan trails in my opinion, with the whisky almost being overwhelmed by the sherry. However if that's what floats your boat, it's still an interesting dram. It's just that, as noted above, I think the Cask Strength version is a much better representation of what Macallan can do.

Whisky Review: Cask Strength Shootout

Over the course of the last couple of evenings, I've tried three different sherried cask strength single malts from Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Macallan. There were a fair number of similarities between each scotch, especially in terms of the method of aging, their lack of age statements, their bottling proofs, and the fact that each is a big step up from their 12-Year old, lower-proof siblings. At the same time, the fairly wide range of prices means that some seem more worthwhile than others. These reviews are slightly provisional as I tried all three at a bar and thus haven't taken my normal route of tasting a spirit several times on different days. However, they were all fairly healthy pours, so I did get to spend a fair bit of time nosing and tasting each whisky.

Aberlour A'Bunadh


Nose: maple syrup, rubber, tropical fruits, malt, oatmeal, a bit of raisins underneath, which becomes slightly less intense and gains hints of sherry and chocolate sauce after dilution

Taste: lightly sweet up front, followed closely by sherried sweetness that carries through the palate, developing malty chocolate near the end, which gains some oatmeal and maple syrup with dilution

Finish: long, chocolate malt and oatmeal

This is a non-chill filtered, cask strength Speyside single malt from Aberlour. Bottled right around 120 proof (there are small variations from batch to batch), it comes with no age statement, but is likely a blend of malts aged from 10-15 years exclusively in ex-Oloroso sherry barrels (I've also had the 12 year and don't detect significantly more barrel influence in the A'Bunadh). My succinct description of this whisky is that it's breakfast in a glass. The intense maple syrup and oatmeal flavors, especially on the nose, make that an inescapable association. Though it commands a fairly significant premium over the aforementioned 12 Year expression, it's also a huge step up in terms of the intensity and variety of flavors.

Glenfarclas 105 Cask Strength


Nose: slightly sour wine, malt, vanilla, sweeter sherry underneath and raisins, which shifts more towards PX-style sherry over time, with malt becoming more dominant alongside subdued raisins and sherry underneath with hints of chocolate, brown sugar and porridge after dilution

Taste: honey malt sweetness up front, big burst of pepper mid-palate, which transforms into a hit of bittersweet chocolate throughout the whole palate, while retaining the honey malt sweetness and pepper, as well as gaining a bit of tropical fruits after adding water

Finish: long, malt, pepper and bittersweet chocolate

It's a little bit difficult to find info on the exact details of how this whisky is produced. Glenfarclas is also located in Speyside and this whisky is clearly aged in ex-sherry barrels, but I haven't been able to figure out what type of sherry used to reside in the barrels. It is bottled at 105 British proof, which is the same as 120-proof or 60% ABV in the usual sense. As with all of these whiskies, there is no age statement, but what I've read suggests that all of the barrels that are blended to make the final spirit are at least 10 years old and I would say that it seems to be as mature as the A'Bunadh. The hefty dose of bittersweet chocolate found throughout the experience of consuming this whisky ticks it a few marks above the others, but it's hampered by costing at least $20 more than the next most expensive. As with the Aberlour, also I find this to be a significant step up from the lower-proof 12 Year bottling from Glenfarclas, both in terms of the range of flavors and their depth. Whether it's worth the extra coin is up to you.

Macallan Cask Strength


Nose: PX sherry, sweet raisins and malty vanilla, which gains some mocha and maple oatmeal after dilution

Taste: brief citrus sourness at the very begin, slipping into sherried sweetness, then black pepper and drier sherry finally leading into chocolate near the end, which becomes honey malt up front, with more subdued sherry, a malty middle, and chocolate and pepper near the end after dilution

Finish: glowing tropical punch, which becomes long with peppery coffee after adding water

In a slight divergence from the other two cask strength whiskies I tried, Macallan is part of the broader Highlands region rather than the Speyside sub-region. However, they claim that Speyside is their 'spiritual home' and its style is very similar to other Speysiders. Macallan has a tradition of aging all of their whiskies in ex-sherry casks. The Cask Strength expression is part of their Sherry oak line, which are all matured in casks made from Spanish oak. There is no age statement on this scotch (though it is now giving way to a 10-Year Cask Strength expression), but it seems as mature as the 12-Year, so my guess is that the average age of the whiskies blended to make this spirit is right around there. This was the simplest cask strength scotch I tried, being a fairly clear evolution from the basic Mac 12-Year, with the PX sherry-heavy nose. However, the smells and flavors are much richer and there is a certain appeal to the heavy dose of pepper that emerges mid-palate, helping to keep it from becoming insipidly sweet and unidimensional. Additionally, it can occasionally be found for as little as $55, which makes it no more expensive than the Mac 12 and an obvious choice over that expression. Up at $65+, I would say that the Aberlour edges it out, though the A'Bunadh is a little bit sweeter.

To line these three whiskies up, I liked the Glenfarclas a bit more than the Aberlour, which was an improvement over the Macallan. Additionally, the Aberlour is probably the best value out of the three, unless you can find the 'Farclas or Macallan on sale. However, if you're looking for a sherry bomb, it's hard to go too far wrong with any one of the three. You'll just have to try them and see which tickles your fancy.