Aberlour A'bunadh, Batch 34, 59.5% abv.

A’bunadh is Gaelic for “of the origins" and is released in batches, with several per year. Batch 34 was bottled around 2011, and like all A'bunadh, it was matured in first fill Spanish Oloroso Sherry butts. Although it is NAS, rumors have the juice pegged between 5 to 25 years.

Nose: initially not as intense as the batch 50+ A'bunadhs, but still major sherry, raisins, dates, apricots, golden apples, light burnt toast, chocolate wafers.

Palate: some sherry influence, sour plums without the purple skin, biting on fresh watermelon seeds, very viney, like grape vines.

Finish: initially short but it becomes long after some air time, abv heat, some dry fruit, interestingly there is caramel very very late in the finish.

This is one of the weaker A'bunadh I've tasted so far (all the ones I've had were batch 50+). It tasted more like grape vines and a variety of fruit seeds than dark fruit and sherry. Might have been a storage issue or the dram needed more time to breathe. Perhaps another visit one day. Until then, batch 34 is one of the lesser enjoyable A'bunadh.

Grade: C

Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.87 ± 0.29 on 5 reviews
Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.95 ± 0.15 on 25 reviews (all batches)
Malt maniacs, Craig Daniels, 90 points
Malt maniacs, Lawrence Graham, 88 points
Malt maniacs, Luca Chichizola, 88 points
Malt maniacs,  David Wankel, 87 points

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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