I’ve reviewed a couple expressions from Aberlour already and if you’ve read those then you know that I thoroughly enjoy their whisky. Today’s dram is no exception; the cask strength, non-chill filtered, Oloroso sherry butt matured Aberlour A’Bunadh (Batch #39) (pronounced A-Boon-Arh).
A’Bunadh is a monster sherried Speysider. The name “A’Bunadh” is Gaelic and roughly translates to ‘of the origin’, or ‘original’. A’Bunadh is meant to represent what a late 19th/early 20th century Aberlour whisky would have been like. The story goes that during still replacement some workmen at the distillery discovered a time capsule that contained an old bottle of whisky that was wrapped in newspaper dated in the 1890s. During lunch they put away about four-fifths of the bottle but the rest went to a laboratory to be analyzed and replicated, and thus A’Bunadh was born. I don’t really buy the story, but it does make for great marketing.
There is no age statement on the bottle. A’Bunadh is a vatting of various aged casks ranging anywhere from roughly 5 to 15 (maybe stretch to 18) years old. It does differ from batch-to-batch, but overall it’s a wonderful whisky. It is bottles like this that make me glad I live here in the U.S. where we get an extra 50ml to enjoy.
Price: $60/750ml
ABV: 59.8% – Cask Strength / Non Chill-Filtered
Color: Deep Amber/Mahogany
Nose: At just about 60% ABV, this whisky has a punch. Behind that there are notes of dry oak, toffee, sherry, clove buds, raisins, rose petals, strong dark chocolate, and the slightest hint of furniture polish in the background.
Palate: There’s a lot of body to this whisky, and it has a nice rich, slightly oily mouth-feel with notes of sherry, mixed dried fruits, honey, dark orange chocolates, and spices.
w/ Water: Water opens it up nicely but it’s quite drinkable neat. In fact, my wife prefers it that way. The nose is a little creamier with hints of raisins, sherry, honey, dark chocolate, raspberries, dry oak, dry orange peel, ginger, figs, fresh ground black pepper, and those floral notes. The palate is a lot smoother with sherry, raisins, honey, figs, vanilla, ginger, chocolate fudge with pecans and walnuts, and almost like an orange tanginess.
Finish: Long and spicy with dry oak and a bit of rich cocoa powder.
A’Bunadh is both rich and complex yet nicely balanced. As of now it is my favorite expression from from the distillery – I need to take a visit there one day soon so I can bottle my own. This is truly an amazing whisky, and at roughly $60/750ml, it is also a huge bang for the buck and highly recommended.
Whisky Informative 
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