#whiskyphDram No. 10. Aberlour A'bunadh Batch 60. Deep Spiced Cola. Speyside Single Malt Scotch.

Nose - Sweet salted caramel, deep and rich. Cinnamon & ginger spice, maybe some faint powdered muscovado sugar and Haribo gummy cola.

Palate - thick, deep & rich. Soft leather lingers for a while with muscovado sugar taken with nuts and grains. A wave of cola like flavors fades into rosemary foccacia bread until you're swept away by the next wave of other spices like cinnamon & clove, a soft rum cake. On a second taste, the same wafts of excitement with more distinctly noticeable citrus fruits and milk chocolate in the background.

Finish - an absolutely delightful medium finish that carries on from the palate, wave upon wave of changing spices with memories of foccacia and rum cake. The sherry influence is present but this is so much more than the common dried berries and nuts.

Feels like a soft comfortable leather chair.

Wow. Where do I begin. The A'bunadh (pronounced "Ab-bunah") gets its name from the Gaelic word for "origin". The story goes that in 1973 a bottle of #Aberlour whisky from 1898 was discovered and this dram looks back to that. Their goal was to create a whisky that is as close as possible to the original spirit of Aberlour.

To do this, they made a whisky that is:
1. Matured exclusively in Oloroso sherry casks, as would have been the norm in the late 1800s;
2. Non-chill filtered, keeping the whisky as pristine as possible; and
3. Bottled at cask strength, ensuring that you get the Aberlour spirit undiluted as if you are drinking straight from the barrel.

The result is an exceptional dram featuring the finest complexity. You can spend hours lost navigating its flavors.

First released in 1997, the #Abunadh is produced in small batches numbered on each bottle. It's a no age statement but is said to blend whiskies aged 5 to 25 years old. My bottle is from Batch 60 and it's exceptional.

I've seen this priced locally from around P5,000 to P8,500. Definitely worth trying. Cheers!

🥃🥃🥃🥃🍻/5

Image Courtesy of @WhiskyPH

@WhiskyPH

At its core, whisky appreciation is an exercise in memory. Notes of a whisky enthusiast in the Philippines. 🥃🇵🇭