Aberlour A'bunadh, Batch 50, 59.6% abv.

A’bunadh is Gaelic for “of the origins" and is released in batches, with several per year. Batch 50 was bottled around 2014, 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. I tried this because I thought the Aberlour 16 Double Cask was really good and decided to try more Aberlour products. This was my first A'bunadh and would help form a foundation for my exploration into the wonderful product line.

Nose: intense sherry, grapes and raisins, waxy.

Palate: dry, relatively intense, moderate levels of sherry influence, a good amount of fruits, some wood, more or less a sherry firework.

Finish: short to moderate, mostly abv spice.

This is pretty good. Not as intense as I thought it would be. Reminds me of a slightly subdued sherry casked Macallan. It doesn't taste like a significantly aged sherry, but definitely not young either. Mostly raisins and honey viscosity. Had this at @wood_side_bar in Seomyeon, Busan.

Grade: B

Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.75 ± 0.34 on 7 reviews
Whiskyanalysis.com, 8.95 ± 0.15 on 25 reviews (all batches)
Whiskyfun.com, Serge Valentin, sgp:561, 87 points
Thewhiskeywash, Joe Micallef, 94/100
Whisky advocate, Dave Broom, 84 points
Whiskynotes, Ruben Luyten, 86/100
Lawhiskeysociety, average, B, 2 reviews

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

🇭🇰 🇺🇸(LA, SF) -> 🇯🇵 (京都, 東京) -> 🇰🇷 (서울, 부산)