Welcome to day 23. While maybe not a house hold name Aberlour is consistently a good choice if you want a quality dram at a good value. This is a whisky that I drink when I want to think of the time just before winter where things are crisp and the air is fresh there are still a few leaves on the trees but the wind comes along whips up a the fallen ones and you get a quick puff of must.
ABERLOUR DISTILLERY
SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
The range is large, with many different variations on ex-Sherry and ex-Bourbon cask matured whiskies – some mixed, some 100%, others finished. Its greatest cult following is for the small batch, 100% Sherry-matured, cask-strength variant A’Bunadh which has run since 2000. Aberlour was also one of the first distilleries to offer a ‘bottle your own’ whisky to visitors.
ABERLOUR HISTORY
The first distillery in the village of Aberlour was established in 1825 and ran until 1833, when the co-lessees James and John Grant left to build their own distillery, Glen Grant, in Rothes. The current distillery was the brainchild of James Fleming who built it in 1879 using water from St. Drostan’s Well, named after an early Columban monk, which is situated on the site.
Like many Victorian distilleries, it burnt down and, in 1898, had to be rebuilt. During World War II when the distillery was on short-term working, locals used to smuggle wash up the Aberlour burn and distil illicitly under the Linn Falls.
The distillery became part of Campbell Distillers in 1945, passing into the Pernod Ricard stable in 1974, the year after it had been expanded from two to four stills and wholly modernised internally. Its ownership has long given it a strong following in France. It is now part of Pernod’s whisky division, Chivas Brothers.
Tasting Notes
Nose: coco nibs, light salt,dry tea, light peat,leather,raisins,marzipan,leather,must,orange,vanilla
Taste: Chocolate, Thick, dry tea, leather,marzipan,cigar, creamy,dark fruits,cloves,oak, marzipan
FInish: Vanilla, Oily, citrus,old books,habanero pepper