Review #13: Aberlour, Double Cask Matured, 12 years old

I picked this one up a few months back to celebrate the completion of a particularly onerous project in work which took over two years to complete. Thank god that's done! It was a big learning experience and I'm better for it and even better still I now have a great reason to relax and enjoy a dram! This is a Speyside single malt scotch even though the label says that it is Highland single malt scotch whisky. I believe that this is because Speyside is a small region within the Highlands geographically speaking and that the river Spey has a large cluster of distilleries around it and as such is considered a distinct whisky region separate from the rest of the Highlands which makes up the majority of Scotland's landmass. Aberlour have a reputation for producing sherry monsters and I've heard great thing about the 10 year old expression which is not available here at the moment outside of whiskey bars - to the best of my knowledge. they also produce a cask strength expression "a'bunadh" of which I have a bottle - lucky me!

Price: I picked this one up for about 65$AU which is reasonably affordable. It's a nice dram, quite enjoyable, not as cheap as some but a lot more so than others for what it is: 5/6

Appearance: Sort of orange-gold probably has colorant added, nice legs are left on the glass on the glass when swirled - apparently this is a good indication of the body of the whisky:  5/6

Available: This is fairly available stuff  here in Melbourne but not in every bottle shop or bar. 4/6

Marketing: The website (link is below) has a little 1 minute video on the whisky with some text and tasting notes, there's some text about the whole process and all the stages involved but no pictures or videos of this and the text is very general and does not really give any interesting detail that might set it apart so not bad but not great. One detail I picked up on is that the sherry butts used for this whisky are seasoned sherry butts as opposed to fresh sherry butts which means that they have likely already been used to age whisky and have been refilled with sherry to re-season the casks to get more life out of the wood. I wonder how that process of re-seasoning works?? Hmmmm! They have a contact us section so I've asked them a few questions about the cask-seasoning, the chill filtration and colorant - watch this space! 4/6

http://www.aberlour.com/range/aberlour-12/

Packaging and Label: The bottle as you can see is clear glass and is squat and has a lovely big cork on it which means I'll be reusing it to soak fruit in booze for some baking in the future. The label tells me that this whisky has been matured in both sherry barrels and traditional (ex bourbon) barrels for a minimum of 12 years and then subsequently been blended together and watered down to 40%. No mention of colorant added or chill filtration so probably this whiskey has been subjected to both: 4/6

Nose: The sherry is very much in evidence for me, lovely sweet rich fruity nose on this one, sultanas, raisins dried fruits, smells like my mothers plum pudding (which curiously does not contain any plums!) 16/20

Taste on entry: Sweet with sherry fruitiness and a little spice and possibly a little citrus nothing too sharp: 15/20

Mouth feel: The legs on the glass tell it true! This whisky has a lovely mouth feel/ body to it which would make me question whether or not it has been subjected to much chill filtration (and I have posed the question): 10/10

Finish: Medium length with sweetness and a little mild spice: 15/20

This whisky is quite good but not amazing, would make for a decent daily dram.

Total score: 78/100

Cheers,
Kev.