The Sound Of Aberlour (or 'Aberlou(de)r')

Hey hey!  Both Joel and I find ourselves at an unusual point this month. Our new book, Distilled is finally out and we're really delighted with the reaction so far. It's been a hugely rewarding ride into the world of spirits and we look forward to many more years to come, writing about and enjoying great spirits in the company of great friends.  

Last week, we had a slight return to our roots back in the music business, albeit as part of a fun and engaging tasting masterclass for The Whisky Show. In fact, it was a superb opportunity to reminisce about 'the old days' of making records and generally revisit what was a fun chapter in our lives. 

Together with an old friend of ours, record producer Danton Supple, the man who produced Coldplay's X&Y album, as well as working with a host of highly successful artists from around the globe including Amy MacDonald and Natalie Imbruglia, we devised an experience for 30 passionate whisky and music fans, who were in attendance at the Whisky Show. For all three of us, there is an undeniable link between whisky and music. It has been said that whisky and rock ‘n roll are the ultimate bedfellows and that the creative energy flowing through many of the greatest and most enduring classic blues and Rock ‘n Roll songs can be attributed to the ‘spirit of the spirit’. From the raw emotion laid bare in Robert Johnson’s seminal recordings of the late 1930s, through to the hedonistic, hell-raising antics of Led Zeppelin and beyond, whisky, of some kind, seeps with abundance from virtually every pore.  

But not only is there a creative link. There are also parallels between the production of classic whiskies and the creation of classic albums and our tasting sought to highlight a number of these similarities. 

We chose the classic Speyside malt, Aberlour as a perfect example of a liquid laid bare, ideal for pairing with music. The concept was to find five unusual expressions of Aberlour, each with its very own personality to match with five similarly characterful pieces of music. Working alongside Danton,  we rattled through our combined record collections with each whisky in tow, until we felt confident that we had mirrored the individual nuances of the liquid. No easy feat, as it turned out, given that music - and tasting notes are so damned subjective. But our collective thinking was that certain styles of whisky have very distinct character traits and it was these that we hoped to highlight with each piece of music.  

Are you still with us?  - honestly, it will become clearer, we promise!

Assembling a fairly high-end stereo in the huge arched tasting rooms down in Vinopolis, the location of The Whisky Show, we laid out our plans -  and the whiskies. Had we succeeded in capturing the essence of each liquid in song form?  

First up was a real cracker: a 16 year-old single cask Aberlour matured in a wonderfully rich sherry cask, only available at the distillery and bottled at 59.1%. In fact, if you pay the distillery a visit, this is one of a pair of releases that you can bottle yourself, so a very special whisky indeed.  As a prime example of a characterful Speyside spirit filled into a clearly very active sherry cask, this whisky is powerful and brooding- rich in body and complexity. It has a mighty spiciness, which develops alongside a highly resonant fruitiness.  To us, a single cask whisky is about as near to completely immersing yourself in the spirit as possible and our idea was to pair this with a stark acoustic recording: something where you hear a song -  and the vocal - in its rawest form, with every nuance of the performance on show. After much discussion, there was only one artist who could truly take on such a mighty whisky and that was 'The Man In Black' himself, the late Johnny Cash.  

The song we chose was The Man Comes Around, taken from his beautifully recorded American IV album, released in 2002. Here, Cash's voice is arguably at its finest: As resonant and cavernous as a 300ft sinkhole, yet still in possession of a rich, spicy character. A voice that has truly lived, if you like. For us, this simple, honest recording was the perfect backdrop to the Aberlour sherry cask. We hit play and stood back.  

With our palates still tingling from such a complex whisky, our next pairing was almost the antithesis of both sherry cask maturation and the fearsome pipes of Johnny Cash. As mentioned above, there is a pair of single casks available at the Aberlour distillery and we were lucky enough to get a bottle of the sister to the brooding sherry bomb: A wonderfully light, zesty, fruity and buttery first-fill Bourbon Cask 16 Year Old Aberlour, bottled at 54.5%. Here, we wanted to try and demonstrate the contrasting lightness against the shade of the sherry release - the ethereal, soft, sweet vanilla/ tropical fruit notes of a first fill bourbon cask.  

This initially proved to be a little tricky. We were convinced that a simple, beautiful acoustic track sung by a timeless female vocalist was the way to go, but finding something uplifting and confident, yet syrupy smooth caused a few disagreements. In the end, after several reaffirming drams at Danton's studio in Shoreditch, we hit on the perfect match: Carole King and her timeless piano led classic, You've Got A Friend from the 1971 masterpiece, Tapestry. The warm, analogue notes of this recording really helped to counterpoint the unctuous notes of the whisky. So far, so good!

The third pairing was perhaps the most interesting to explore and gave Danton a chance to demonstrate just why he is one of the most in demand record producers in the world. Our task was to find a way of articulating the perfect balance of cask types found in an Aberlour 17 year old Double Cask release, bottled exclusively for the French market at 43%.  As we have previously seen, both first fill sherry and bourbon cask styles have very different flavour profiles and too much of either one can change the balance of light and shade- potentially in the wrong direction.  

It was here that Danton likened the practice of mixing a song to that of the whisky maker obtaining that perfect balance of flavours in a finished recipe and to highlight this, he bought along something you simply wouldn't get to hear every day: The multitrack recordings of one of Coldplay's biggest hits, Fix You. Using his laptop to highlight individual tracks he began with the song's simple organ part and stark vocal, building to a crescendo of instruments and emotions. Too much of one aspect (the organ and bass parts) gave the track a darker feel. Too much lead vocal and guitar, coupled with vocal harmony parts produced a mix that was sweeter and lighter, but lacked the solidity and foundations of the finished, balanced recording. In tandem, the 17 year old Aberlour hit that sweet spot of rich, darker notes, whilst building to a wonderfully balanced, sweet fruitiness. 

For the forth pairing, we wanted to really push the boat out and thanks to the almost archive-like inventory of the Whisky Exchange, we managed to locate a dusty bottle of Aberlour/Glenlivet 8 Year Old, bottled in the middle of the 1960's.  This time capsule of a whisky was unlike any modern whiskies on the palate and made us wonder about the difference of production methods back then. Today's whisky business centres on practices that deliver consistency, with a greater understanding of wood management and maturation, so you can pretty much guarantee that the bottle you open today will taste pretty similar to the one you open in a decade.  However, back in the 1960's things were a little different. Aberlour Ambassador Phil Huckle gave us some background on the distillery at the time, pointing to the idiosyncrasies that might affect the differing flavour profiles of a whisky, such as coal fired stills and less of a scientific approach to understanding the maturation process.   

For these reasons, we wanted to find a classic track made roughly around the same era, which despite the limitations of technology at the time, is arguably regarded as a groundbreaking piece of music. We didn't have to think too hard about this -  Pink Floyd's Breathe from their seminal Dark Side Of The Moon.  

With the room feeling particularly chilled out and no doubt drifting off into a dreamy whisky/progrock-induced haze, it was time to bring things back to life. Our final pairing was the most lively of all, a given, when you consider the whisky we decided to finish on. Aberlour A'Bunadh is arguably the distillery's most well known and highly regarded expression and has developed an almost cult following since it was first released in 1997. For us, this is the most extreme style of Aberlour (batch 48 is bottled at 59.7%) and our pairing needed to reflect this. In fact, it made us think of the concept of seeing your favourite band play live: You know the songs, but everything is so much more lively, loud, driven and direct. All in all, everything is turned up to 11, with everyone on stage delivering a visceral and incendiary performance. There was no disagreement as to which track would perfectly articulate this: Can't Explain from The Who's incredible 'Live At Leeds' album, rated by many music critics as the best live album of all time. The recording is brutally honest, leaving Townshend, Entwistle, Moon and Daltery no room to hide, each one at the top of their game and performing out of their skins. It's the sound of a band so accomplished, they can strip open the songs at ease and allow the listener to understand what each instrument really adds. 


Aberlour A'Bunadh has the same simplistic and powerful heart, but there are also layers of complexity amongst all the extremes. It's a whisky that transports you right back to the beginnings of the distillery with each passing sip (for those who don't know, it was a recreation of a very old bottle front he late 1800's that was found at the distillery)- much in the same way that listening to 'Live At Leeds' gives even those listening today that feeling of "I Was There'. 

What a way to finish. For those of you who would like to try and recreate the same experience at home, we've created a 'Sound Of Aberlour' Spotify playlist which you can listen to here.  

The Sound Of Aberlour spoti.fi/1rJ2i3Y 

But why not try creating your own pairings? Of course, each listener and drinker has a deeply personal relationship with their music and whisky; this was ours and we're willing to bet that given half the chance, you can find your own perfect Sound Of Aberlour.  

A Brace Of Beauties: Aberlour 12 Years Old Double Cask Matured Single Malt Whisky And Aberlour 12 Years Old Bi Centenary Edition Limited Edition Single Malt Whisky

We all know that the most important thing in the world of whisky production is the quality of casks used to mature the spirit. The big two, American oak casks and European oak casks, are often rolled out on whisky bottle labels to try, in some small part, to describe to the purchaser how the mature product inside the bottle has come to be: a small Curriculum Vitae of the liquid.

There are, of course, other casks which can be used for maturing whisky such as port pipes, sweet wine casks and French wine barriques (this week we’ll review the new Glenmorangie Private Edition which has been matured in red wine casks), but the main players are European oak and American white oak. But what does that mean?

A Cooperage in Spain

Many whisky drinkers will automatically make the assumption that an American oak barrel has previously held American whiskey, usually a bourbon of some sort and that European oak will have been used first mature sherry, both giving different levels of intensity and flavour to the resulting Scotch whisky.

However, the words ‘American oak’ on a label should not automatically lead you to believe that these casks have held bourbon. It is fair to think so, but it should be noted that American oak is also used in the maturation of sherry and that some bodegas and Spanish cooperages focus only on the use of American oak, as we experienced on a recent fact finding trip to Jerez.

Much more telling is when a label tells you the lineage of the cask and what it has previously held. To illustrate this, let’s look at two different whiskies, from the same distillery, bottled at the same age but from different cask styles.

The first is Aberlour 12 Years Old, the standard range bottling which has been matured in two different types of casks. The label tells us that ‘traditional oak and Sherry oak casks’ have been used. There is no wider definition of what a ‘traditional oak cask’ is, save to say that the assumption is left to the drinker that it is an American oak cask, the number of refills left to the imagination.

Aberlour – 12 Years Old – Double Cask Matured – 70cl -  40% abv

**note: this was previously bottled at 42% abv**

Nose: Creamy vanilla gives way to crème brulee, heather honey and freshly baked bread. Sweetness rises up, giving hints of apricot jam and iced buns, with a hint of fresh mint at the back.

Palate: A big hit of candied orange peel, some light cinnamon and some basil notes. This whisky is fresh at first, but the richer tones of mandarin and anise develop over time. With water: the palate slows down with the apricot coming first followed by delicate pear drops with a spiced backdrop.

Finish: A shot of spice with a touch of apricot again. With water: a longer finish with less spice and more summer fruits.

Overall: A very drinkable Speyside 12 Years Old which gives a well produced balance between American oak vanilla and European oak inspired fruits.

The second is an Aberlour 12 years old, which has been matured only in sherry casks for the full term of the maturation. This edition was made available only at the distillery in 2013 to celebrate the bi-centenary of Aberlour village and is limited to 1812 bottles, the date which the distillery was founded.

Aberlour – 12 Years Old – Distillery Only Aberlour Village Bi-Centenary Edition – 1812 bottles - 70cl – 56.8% abv

Nose: Straight up at you with some punch, this hits the nose at a whopping 56.8% abv speed, delivering a very full and rich sherry aroma of blackcurrant, roasted strawberries drizzled with reduced balsamic vinegar glaze, some menthol and  the classic Christmas cake for which sherry casks are so famous. With water:

Palate: Warm spices from intense wood flavour deliver a drying but delicious dram which, to uncover more, demands the addition of water: once added, we find black forest gateaux (black cherry and cream), more blackcurrant, newly polished wood and a oaky hit. Sour cherry and cola cubes at the end.

Finish: Liquorice and red apple skins with a hint of white pepper.

Overall: Wowzer: a big, big flavoured whisky which delivers well in both balance and complexity. If you can get hold of a bottle of this, try it. It’s Aberlour A'bunadh with some additional maturity, so it seems.

The results: Well, here we have two whiskies from the same distillery, with two totally different profiles but a clear family resemblance. It is good evidences that, at the same age, two differently flavoured whiskies can be achieved from the simple use of different styles of oak. 

The core range Aberlour 12 is very much an ‘every day’ drinker. Something perfect for the hiplflask or to keep pouring during a game of poker. The special edition 12 years old, with its big heavy sherry tones is just that: a special whisky, a sipping whisky, which should take you a lot longer to make your way through than the standard 12 years old ‘easy drinking’ option. 

Either way, the two are clearly from the same mothership, showing how important the production processes at different single malt distilleries are to the overall flavour of a malt.

Tie A Yellow Ribbon, It's The Merry Month Of May: The Glenlivet Distillery Only SIngle Malt And Big Peat Islay Blended Malt Whisky Reviews

Before I kick off this post, we need to make a small announcement. Since we started writing this blog at the beginning of 2008, we’ve been on an amazing journey, met a lot of fantastic people and had some incredible experience in the world of whisky. There weren’t many whisky blogs around at that time (Dr Whisky and Whiskyfun take a bow for probably being the only other two – sorry if we’ve missed anyone out), with score-free whisky reviews seemingly like an idea from Mars.

Now in our sixth year, we’ve been extra busy with everything from writing work with the likes of Whisky Magazine, Imbibe, The Wall Street Journal in India and many more around the world, through to books (Neil and Gavin D. Smith’s excellent Let Me Tell You About Whisky), media work, our bottlings, hosting tasting far-and-wide, as well running our creative agency, Caskstrength Creative. This year we were even made Keepers of the Quaich and we were incredibly proud to receive such an honour from our peers.

As a result of our growing number of outlets for our writing (including a new book we have just been commissioned to write- more on that soon) we will be tightening up our posting schedule, condensing our blog to two articles a week, on a Tuesday and a Thursday, with any ‘special features’ (such as trips to Islay’s Feis Ile or anything else that needs more in-depth coverage or special attention) going out in between.

If you don’t want to miss out on our now bi-weekly posts as well as any other special features we do, you can subscribe to our mailing list (you won’t get any other rubbish, just our articles from here) on the right of the page.

So that’s it. Expect fresh and new content every Tuesday and every Thursday here on Caskstrength.net or mailed directly to your inbox if you subscribe.

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May is a big month. 

Usually it is the time when relegation and promotion in the British football leagues are resolved (and as an Oxford United fan, that often induces ‘squeaky bum time’, as Sir Alex once called it), the FA Cup and Champions League finals are played and it is a month when you (if you’re me) start to think about booking a holiday, but realise it might be prudent to do a tax return first. But over-and-above all of these, it is also the season of the regional whisky festival in Scotland.

First up, for those of you who like a good Glen or two, the Spirit of Speyside festival kicks off. This year it was held between Thursday 2^nd and Monday 6^th May, with various events taking place across the region and some superb drams tasted, such as The Glenlivet’s first ever distillery-only bottling. Inspired by sister distillery Aberlour, they have added a fill-you-own cask in their new mini-tour section and, as you would expect, is labelled as ‘cask number 1’. So, for the second post in a row, let's try a new bottling from The Glenlivet.

The Glenlivet – Hand Filled At The Distillery – 18 Years Old - Cask No. 1 – Bourbon Cask – Number of bottles unknown – 56.8% ABV (£70.00)    

Nose: White peaches, rich maple syrup and vanilla. Some soft ginger loaf, highly polished oak furniture and over-ripe banana, apricots, nutmeg and cinnamon. There is fantastic age to this dram with a really rounded nose. A very active cask caught at just the right time, with a big in aroma. A really big aroma.  With water: the vanilla and banana come to the fore and red cherries appear.

Palate: At full strength, it is sweet on the palate (muscavardo sugars), with a hint of green tea, rancio and bitter orange, all wrapped up in very dark chocolate. With water, the whisky really comes alive, giving a boost to the previous flavours but with an added bonus of golden syrup and heather honey.

Finish: Soft and long with a rich treacle tart notes.

Overall: If you’re going to do something, do it well and that is exactly what The Glenlivet have done with first attempt at a distillery only bottling. A single cask, cask strength 18 year old for £70 is not bad value at all in my book.

The excellent, limited ed Aberlour

There were a few ‘special’ bottling flying around in Speyside, such as Glenfiddich's 200-only festival bottle (a light and floral bourbon cask from 1997 and bottled, hand bottled with an abv of 55.4%), an excellent Aberlour of just 1,812 bottles, designed for local sale only (a richer, stonger version of the a'bunadh with an age statement of 12 Years Old, 56.8% abv, 100% oloroso sherry) and a Mortlach named simply ‘48’ (3,000 bottles ‘only’) and bottled at the respective abv.

However, the home of the special bottling has to be Islay, which has consistently offered up interesting single cask releases such as the Lagavulins and Caol Ilas done by Diageo (not to mention their legendary Port Ellen), many interesting Bruichladdichs, Bunnahbhains and Bowmores and always something from Ardbeg and Laphroaig, who are now using the occasion to launch wide limited releases across the world. Add to this Kilchoman and Jura and the aforementioned holiday / tax bill seems to slip even further down the priority list when it comes to money!

As usual, we shall be heading out to Islay for the majority of the festival (a wedding precludes turning up for the first few days) but once we arrive we’re expecting the same fun-filled time as usual (although I’m not sure anything can top 2009 with @TWEBlog, Faceman and the Immortal Cowjetski). Having warmed up in April with a trip to Skye, tasting a couple of Port Askaigs and refreshed our palate with some excellent grain and Speyside offerings, it’s time to start warming up again for peat and what could be more apt than a new offering from the new arm of Douglas Laing, than their small batch Big Peat.

A brand which has been around since 2009 and has traditionally used whisky only from Islay, also at times using Port Ellen in their mix. The new release, available only at www.bigpeat.co.uk this edition, bottled at 50% contains whisky from Ardbeg, Caol Ila, Bowmore and Port Ellen. A 50cl offering is only £29.99 and only 250 bottles have been made.

Big Peat – 'Private Edition' - Blended Islay Malt – NAS - 50cl - 50% abv £29.99 here

Nose: vanilla, spiced green apple, peat smoke (obvs), white and green wine gums, some watermelon, pear drops, chamois leather and grapefruit, some coal dust.

Palate: Lovely and smooth, soft vanilla and those pear drops take centre stage. The back of the palate is where the smoke sits. Some dusty old tones and a little copper fill the mouth. Zinc and calcium notes round out a sweet, peaty and slightly chalky palate. With water, the vanilla develops and the chalky nature falls a little, leaving an oiler whisky.

Finish: Bitter lemon, marmalade and smoke.

Overall: For a penny short of £30, this is a solid peaty offering, if not a little leathery in places. The perfect ready-made hipflask for that CalMac ferry over to Port Ellen, this will warm your heart and your tummy with a fist of great peatiness, before you disembark to savour some of the whiskies which originally went into this mix.

Well, this has certainly warmed me up and the smell of peat smoke fills my soul. Speyside seems to be a regular on our travels at the moment and it has been a while since I’ve visited Islay, but this has given me a dreamy vision of arriving once more to see old friends, stay in old buildings and drink old drams.

Here’s to May- a month of many delights!

The Twelve Drams Of Christmas - Part Eleven

Our penultimate festive dram comes on a very wintery day (well it is here in the Midlands)

The weather is shockingly cold, rainy and miserable. Come on! couldn't we have just a little snow to at least make us feel Christmas'y....

Until then, here's a cracking suggestion from our good friend and dram'meister, Mr Ben Ellefsen from Master Of Malt:

Well hellllooooo....

"Leaving aside our own range of course, (gentle plug!) I'd have to say that that bottle I'm going to reach for on Christmas day will be a Glenfarclas 105, or an Aberlour a'Bunadh (doesn't matter which batch). After an entire year of tasting, sampling, and picking apart various malts for tasting notes and cask selection, I'm after something at cask strength, with a big, sherry-rich, mucky flavour to savour without having to think too much about it. Both of these bottlings provide exceptional value for money, too - so I can feel completely comfortable opening a bottle with the intention of finishing it with friends and family"

Wise words sir!

Aberlour a'Bunadh - Batch no. 15 - 59.6%

Nose: Big dry sherry cask notes, alcohol steeped raisins, dates, menthol, some earthy, compost/dried leaves and then dark cigar wrappers. Just nosing this is certainly cleaning the pipes.

Palate: Surprisingly smooth initially, then the fire starts to burn. There's no escape from this whisky in the flavour department; the dry cask notes are still present, but now rich christmas cake, more dates, some sweet cereal notes are developing, alongside some decidedly lighter and more delicate fruity/barley sugar flavours.

Finish: Resinous, powerful and spicy, with a little licorice developing as the palate dries.

Tomorrow's post will be our last festive dram suggestions before the big day and both Joel and I will take the honours... Jingle Bells!!

Help! My Palate Is Broken!!

It's been 3 days now and I am still consigned to my bed with a truly dreadful cold, here at Caskstrength towers. In all my years of drinking whisky in a 'semi-serious' capacity, ie since I was about 23, I cannot remember a time when a cold has taken hold as voraciously as this. In fact, such is my faith in the healing properties of whisky, that i've been crudely paraphrasing an old Irish saying whenever I do a tasting - especially when one of the audience has a few sneezes... 'What butter and whisky can't cure, cannot be cured' I yell, in a mock, strong-as-an-ox, Brian Blessed-styled voice. And it seemed to have worked. Until now that is.

So i'm sat up, propped against 2 pillows, trying to get comfortable, drinking a full steaming Cafetiere of lemon juice, freshly ground ginger, honey, a double measure of Kings Ginger Liqueur, topped off with a generous slug of Compass Box Asyla. Oh... and some boiling water.

As I cough up another lung, I realise why the cold has had such a profound effect. It was my week long trip across Europe (last week) which was clearly to blame. It suddenly dawned on me that as I was driving most days, I hadn't had a drop of whisky for nigh on the entire trip, whilst my co-driver coughed and spluttered all over the dash board... and all over my service station sandwich. Had the protective seal of a Talisker or Highland Park fortified my immune system, i'd be jumping around now like a 10 year old. Well, perhaps not that energetic, but you get my drift.

So ladies and gentlemen, I can categorically state that lack of whisky has clearly led me to a weakened constitution. To develop this wild thesis further, Grandma Caskstrength is living proof that whisky kills the bugs and gives you hugs. She has been inseparable from a bottle of Famous Grouse and ginger ale for the latter part of her adult life and was only told to stop on the outset of Gout in her left leg. On more detailed explanation, the doctor actually told her to give up the ginger ale, as it was that, which was causing the problems. So it's neat whisky all the way and the old girl has never looked healthier- now at the ripe old age of 88.

Grandma Caskstrength, on being told

she should give up her daily dram

So can I top up?

Make up for last week's clearly idotic thinking? What should I have? And where, more importantly, does the line between self-medication and binge drinking get well and truly blurred?

I have ventured downstairs to let in my faithful companion Bobby (who, incidentally, is eating better than me these days - Felix Roast Turkey Dinner pouches are the way forward) and have stopped momentarily by the whisky cabinet. Which bottling is going to restore life and well-being in double quick time?

I make a quick mental check list for what I am looking for:

1. It needs to be caskstrength. Stop the bug in its tracks, from 1000 yards.

2. As my tastebuds and nose are useless at the moment, it needs to be a monster. Big sherry or big peat.

3. It also needs to warm me up. The equivalent of both a hot water bottle and a throat lozenge.

My hand hovers over a few cask samples of Karuizawa vintages, which technically fit the bill. But it would be a shame to waste their complexity on such a sickly palate.

Laphroaig Quarter Cask?? Close. Big, bold, medicinal and known to kill 99.9% germs in a single sip.

On this occasion though, I've chosen something from the back of my cabinet, which I haven't tried in a while. Aberlour a'bunadh...batch 15. Whilst it's bottled at 59.6%, I seem to remember it having a softer note on the palate, whilst still being able to cut through a safe door like a Oxy acetylene torch.

My little self-medicating saloon is all set. Batch 15 will either lift my unhealthy pallor, or just give me a rocking hangover tomorrow. Right now, i'd take either over this despicable bout of the sniffles.

Aberlour - a'bunadh - Batch no. 15 - 59.6%

Nose: Initially nothing, until I locate a new pack of tissues. Then it comes alive- big dry sherry cask notes, booze steeped raisins, dates, menthol, some earthy, compost/dried leaves and then dark cigar wrappers. Just nosing this is certainly cleaning the pipes. Colour is being restored as I type! There is perhaps the vaguest hint of something sulphury, but my nose is in no shape to be getting all pernickety.

Palate: Surprisingly smooth initially, then the fire starts to burn and I can feel the whole of my throat being jet washed, all the bugs trying to hang on in vain. There's no escape from this whisky in the flavour department; the dry cask notes are still present, but now rich christmas cake, more dates, some sweet cereal notes are developing, alongside some decidedly lighter and more delicate fruity/barley sugar flavours. Wow. Never noticed them before.

Finish: Resinous, powerful and spicy, with a little licorice developing as the palate dries.

Overall: Well, after the first initial dram, I am feeling a whole lot more perky and positive. Whether ANY whisky in great quantity could achieve the same effects is debatable, but in this instance, I feel I have chosen wisely. Aberlour a'bunadh is not to everyone's liking- it's bold, powerful and sometimes too brutal, but batch 15, which I have been keeping for a little while now, has suddenly found its moment in the sun. And tonight, I don't think anything else could come close.

Help The Aged

Yesterday, Chivas Brothers launched a “global campaign to advocate the importance and value of age statements to consumers”.

Chivas have done some research which basically comes to the conclusion that people buying whisky, be it single malt or blended, think that the greater the age on the label, the better the whisky inside*. As you will know if you read this blog, that’s a load of old bollocks. Last year, the winner of our Best In Glass Award was a 3 Year Old, in the Kilchoman. The previous year however, it was a whisky from the early 1970’s. The issue with whisky is not HOW LONG something is aged for, but HOW WELL it is aged. And neither should an increased age statement be used as an excuse to demand a higher price.

The most obvious example of these two factors combining that springs to mind is Lagavulin where you have a 12 Year Old whisky at a higher price than a 16 Year Old. And which is better? Well, in our opinion the 12 Year Old is better. A younger whisky which is better than its older counterpart, but also MORE EXPENSIVE. This is one example of a younger whisky being both “better” and more highly priced than its older counterpart.

If we were to expand this argument to a no-age statement bottling, then we should look to Aberlour: the No Age Statement A’bunadh comes out more expensive than their age statement 10 Year Old. And of course it’s more expensive because it is “better” (note: the word “better” is in adverted commas. This is because it is both our expressed opinion and that of the wider drinking community. You may feel the Aberlour 10 Year Old is blessed with flavours which could come only from God himself and if so, you’re totally entitled to these opinions).

So having said all that, let’s try and dig into the Chivas argument for the promotion of age statements on whisky. Let’s start with a little video on the matter:

Now, if you didn’t watch that (or you’re reading this via our mailout), then let me pick up on a major point made less than 20 seconds in to the video, where it states:

“Look for the number... A guarantee of Age... A guarantee of quality.”

Hummmm... no. There is no direct link between the age of a whisky and the quality of a whisky, as Chivas testify themselves with the Aberlour A’bunadh. Old whisky can be very good. But it can also be very poor. And the same is true with young whisky; it can be very good, or very poor.

From here on in, however the video gets much better. There is a genuine attempt to educate the consumer as to what an age statement means. It means that there is a guarantee of a minimum maturation length of the whisky in the bottle. And it is clear from the aforementioned research that a lot of consumers are not aware of this and thus it is important to educate and inform about the true meaning of an age statement.

It does sit awkwardly with me though that the initial frame of reference in this video is saying “Look for the age of the whisky as that makes it good.” This is a question I was able to put to Neil Macdonald, Brand Director for Chivas Brothers.

“It’s all about educating the consumer”, Neil told me. “We’re in a global business and there are certain markets where drinking whisky is a new trend and not everyone understands the impact and importance of an age statement on a bottle. It’s time we went out and proclaimed the benefits of age”.

And I agree. The more the consumer is educated about the contents of the bottle, the more it will help them to see through the marketing and make an informed decision about the quality of the whisky behind the label. And at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. The quality of the whisky.

One of my top whiskies at present is Nikka From The Barrel, a no age statement whisky where I don’t even know what the label says as it’s all in Japanese. You see, I don’t give a toss about what’s written on the back or the front, because the stuff inside is so bloody good. Maybe we’ll start a campaign to ban age statements altogether... then you really would have to judge the whisky on the quality of the whisky...

*In their research, 94% of consumers believe the age statement serves as an indicator of quality and 93% believe that older whiskies are better quality.