In 2005, David Stirk, author of The Malt Whisky Guide and previous journalist for Whisky Magazine, established the Creative Whisky Company as a further means of following his passion for single malt whisky. The Creative Whisky Company bottles various single malts aged anywhere between five and forty years and sometimes even older. One thing all of their whiskies have in common, though, is that they are all single cask expressions.
“I’ve spent the last 15 years researching whisky to gain the knowledge and ability to give you the best choice of single cask whisky from Scotland. Each and every bottle comes with my personal guarantee that I have nosed, tasted and approved the cask of whisky that it came from,” says Stirk.
Independent bottlers can be a great way of getting your hands on some very interesting whiskies from your favorite distillery in craft presentation – cask strength, non chill-filtered and no coloring added. The whisky we have for today was distilled at the Aberlour distillery – a 12-Year-Old aged solely in American White oak ex-Bourbon casks. It was distilled June 22, 2000 and bottled January 2013. It is from cask number 3076 and is one of 263 bottles, which tells me it most likely came from a hogshead rather than an American Standard Barrel.
Perhaps another benefit to trying malts from independent bottlers, and one thing I love about this particular whisky, is that it allows a unique look into a distillery’s profile – although the distillery uses traditional casks for maturation, all of the whiskies in the Aberlour standard range have spent time in Spanish ex-Sherry casks. I also just love the Exclusive Malts bottles – simple yet elegant, the metal medallion and slip-top packaging look great sitting on a shelf. A couple of my favorite independent bottlers are Signatory Vintage, a premier independent bottler in Scotland, Gordon & MacPhail and A.D. Rattray. Now it’s time to take a look into this one.
Price: Approx $70/750ml
ABV: 55.7% – Cask Strength / Non Chill-Filtered / Natural Color
Color: Lightly Golden
Nose: Big on sweet malt, honey, dry grass, old barn, stewed apples, pear, a bit of oak heavy chardonnay and hints of powdered sugar and vanilla.
Palate: Starts off with that sweet malt and toffee again but becomes more of a honey sweetness as it moves into mid-palate. There’s definitely a bit of herbs in there as well along with straw, apple, pear – moving into those chardonnay characteristics again – and hints of spicy oak.
w/Water: Very much aligned with the nose and palate, although the toffee and honey sweetness gets a little creamier. This Aberlour takes water quite well.
Finish: Moderate with toffee, apple and oak.
This one is quite fresh and crisp with all sorts of barnyard type flavors and aromas. There’s not a whole lot going on but it is rather tasty. Quite sippable at cask strength, too (or perhaps I’m just getting used to these kinds of things ;) but water brings some creaminess and a little chewier mouthfeel. I’ve seen some Exclusive Malt Laphroaigs and Coal Ilas that I’ll definitely have to try. (B/B-)
Whisky Informative 
Cool to see an Aberlour aged in bourbon casks, but is it fair to say you would rather a Sherried Aberlour?
Also, I was reading recently that a lot of independent bottlers will purchase a barrel, but not bottle it all at once. Is that true? If so, how can you tell what size the barrel was by the number of bottles?
It is definitely fair to say I’d rather a sherried Aberlour. The other side of the coin for this one could be A’Bunadh – cask strength, non chill-filtered, and all Sherry cask, which I enjoy much more.
Very true regarding the bottling of casks – IBs do bottle portions and leave the rest for further maturation. I can safely say that this one came out of a hogshead due to the number of bottles, its age, and that it’s ex-Bourbon. Being that this one is 12-years-old, and based on a 1.5-2 percent evaporation rate per annum, if it were an American Standard Barrel it would have only yielded somewhere around 230 bottles or so max. A hogshead would yield about 275 bottles with those specs, and this is one of 263 – could have been some leakage, a good amount of first year absorption, or it just wasn’t filled to capacity. More importantly I guess is that it’s ex-Bourbon, and therefore wouldn’t have come from a cask larger than 250 liters capacity, or a hogshead.
Now if Sherry were involved, you could hypothesize that it was half of a Sherry butt (500 liters total capacity) that was bottled and the rest was left to further mature.
Thinking about it, I honestly may even prefer the 12-year-old non chill-filtered double cask (Bourbon and Sherry matured) to this one as well, even though it’s not cask strength. It’s the Sherry involvement that gives it the much enjoyed added depth and character. To me at least.
Not to say I don’t love this particular whisky, because I do. If had to choose between the two, though…
Oh, okay. I guess I could have just done the math on the bottles, but I don’t really like doing math. Thanks for the clear up.
That is what I was thinking, just from reading your reviews of other Aberlour whiskies. It seems like their house sherried style serves them best.
No problem. Being that it’s ex-Bourbon, I probably could have skipped all the math and stated that it’s from a hogshead and had about a 90 percent chance of being correct, since hogsheads are the most common type of cask used in Scotland, but that would have taken all the fun out of it ;)
Indeed. I really want to get to the distillery soon to bottle my own.
I was intrigued to read your review! I recently finished a bottle from the sister cask #3077, distilled on same day, 6/22/2000, and bottled in 2013 at 13yo for K&L Wines. I recognized similarities in the tasting notes – in particular the freshly sawn, honeyed wood (you call it old barn/sweet honey). Here were my tasting notes:
“Aberlour 2000 13yo Exclusive Malts Cask #3077 for K&L, d.22.06.2000 286btls, 55.1%. Hot, new-makey, yet oaky whisky. I liked the honey+freshly cut pine aspects, although they are kind of rough/hot, not nicely integrated like in a good Balvenie 15yo SB. They reminded me of the room where my grandfather stored his empty bee hives. Peaches on the palate. Much better with water, the flavors integrate well. 3/5 stars.”
It seems that compared to yours the ABV went down a bit in the extra few months (55.1% vs. 55.7%). It’s also curious that they got 286 bottles out of #3077, but only 263 from #3066! Lots of sampling?
K&L got four casks from Exclusive Malts. My blogger friend from “Diving for Pearls” posted notes on three of these, with the fourth one coming up. We both ranked them as Fettercairn > Ledaig (“Island”) > Aberlour > Bowmore. The Island and Bowmore are still available at K&L. The quality of the wood seems questionable at least for the Aberlour and Bowmore, so beware.
I think that Aberlour makes great un-sherried whisky (I’m not a big fan of sherried whisky myself), it’s just that this EM is not quite it.
Hi Florin. Thank you for the great comment, and for sharing your thoughts on your bottle. You got the ‘next door neighbor’ cask, eh? ;)
Given that cask #3077 had a bit more time for evaporation, yet yielded more bottles, I’d say it was just a more solid cask. It’s always tough to say, though. The two biggest culprits, although sampling definitely has something to do with it as well, is the absorption rate of the wood during the first year and the overall leakiness of the cask. If it’s not that solid of a cask, there will be a bit more evaporation and leakage. Possibly what occurred with cask #3076.
I agree, the integration could have definitely been better. I’m originally from Ohio, where an old barn can be found in nearly any town. Instantly reminded me of standing in one of them – like old, dusty wood with some honey in the air.
I thought this whisky was tasty, but it definitely didn’t warrant anything above a “B” on my scale. It’s actually towards the lower end of that letter grade for me. I prefer their spirit with a sherried touch, so it’s nice to hear someone’s thoughts that enjoy it more traditional.
I’ve been considering picking up the new Fettercairn from Douglas Laing’s Old Particular line. I’ve been hearing good things about it.