Aberlour 12 Year Old Non Chill-Filtered Review

If you read my review of Aberlour 12yo, you may recall me mentioning that Aberlour very recently revamped their 12 year expression by making it more of a craft presentation; increasing the ABV to 48% and making it non-chill filtered. At a higher ABV and without the use of chill filtering the whisky holds on to more of its original flavor profiles.

Well, I’m happy to share that after quite a bit of searching I finally got my hands on a bottle of this exciting dram and today we’re going to do a comparison review against the original Aberlour 12 (43%, Chill Filtered).

Remember, this is the same expression and it is matured in the same way. The only differences are the higher ABV and the fact that it is no longer chill filtered. I’m going to start off with having a couple of slight drams of the original and then move on to the new. Let’s get to it.

Price: $60/750ml
ABV: 48% – Non Chill-Filtered

Color: Dark gold/amber. There is no difference in color here, but with the addition of water it does get slightly cloudy. And of course that’s a good sign!
Nose: What an initial difference at first nosing – Sherry right off the bat, vanilla, oak, this one is a lot darker. There’s also just the slightest hint of smoke in the background, honey, dark chocolate, raisins, fig. This nose actually reminds me a bit of the 18.
Palate: There’s that sherry and oak again right up front, figs, raisins, bitter chocolate, cinnamon, touches of floral, quite powerful and that oak likes to hang around, raspberries, and slight sweetness.
w/ Water: The nose is a tad sweeter with honey and hints of dry sweetened fruits. On the palate that sweetness shows too but those cinnamon spices and oak are still there – they’re quite enjoyable and move right into the finish with raisins and orange chocolates.
Finish: This is a much longer finish and leaves a lot to be enjoyed – Long with spices, oak, and dark chocolate.

This is a great improvement to an already good whisky, and it was definitely worth the wait. The sherry casks stand out a bit more, which definitely makes this whisky more enjoyable. I hope to see more distilleries begin to make these types of changes in the near future, and I think we’re headed in that direction.

Re-reviewed: Saturday – 8 March 2014. Grade changed from “B” to “B+”