Aberlour

In the heart of Speyside, halfway between Aberdeen and Inverness, you will find Aberlour Distillery. Their recognizably rich and complex single malts are matured for at least 12 years and double-casked – firstly matured in American oak and then in Oloroso sherry butts.

While the Aberlour collection might be small relative to other producers of single malt, the Aberlour is wide-ranging, full of quality and richness. The single malts all offer great aroma and taste – and a lasting finish, which captures every whisky connoisseur.

The French spirit producer Pernod Ricard has had the ownership of Aberlour since 1974, although James Fleming originally founded it in 1879. Today Aberlour is naturally a part of Chivas Brothers, the gin and whisky branch of Pernod Ricard.

The Aberlour Collection

The collection is characterized by a sherried and fruity richness, and it currently consists of four expressions of single malt:

• Aberlour 12 Year Old
• Aberlour 16 Year Old
• Aberlour 18 Year Old
• Aberlour A’Bunadh

Aberlour 12 Year Old offers a subtle and balanced flavor, and it displays how the double cask maturation truly alters the Aberlour raw spirit. Aromatic with fruity notes of red apple, and the flavor profile delivers fruitiness and citrus balanced with notes of rich chocolate. The 12 Year Old’s finish is warm and lingering as well as sweet and spicy.

With another four years of maturation Aberlour 16 Year Old is a deep and complex expression, and it has a more richly-scented floral nose with notes of sweet raisins and spicy nuts, and in the palate, the floral and spicy flavors are accompanied with sweetness, plum and gentle notes of ask offering smoothness. Its finish is long and warm with a spicy sweetness, all in all creating a warm and fruity single malt enriched by sensations of spicy sweetness.

Aberlour 18 Year Old is the collection’s mature and spicy expression with immense depth. Its age adds body and a developed and distinct fruitiness as well as a greater sherry influence. The nose is treated to toffee and butterscotch notes along with bitter orange ripe peach, providing a rich and complex aroma. The flavor profile has notes of apricot and cream, to begin with, and is followed by blackcurrant jam, sweet oak and a hint of honey. This expression has a very long and well-balanced finish, which progresses from crème brûlée to a flourish of gentle oak.

In 2000 Aberlour A’Bunadh was released as homage to James Fleming, the founder of Aberlour. The expression is bottled at cask strength and is entirely matured in Oloroso sherry casks – as such, it’s particularly sherried and intense. A’Bunadh is Gaelic for ‘the original’, and each small batch production is hand-made from beginning to bottling.

The complex nose offers notes of praline, spiced orange and mixed spices, which complement the very rich and deep notes of sherry. The palate is full-bodied and creamy with fruity notes such as orange, black cherries, dried fruit and ginger, all of which are enhanced by dark and bitter chocolate, sherry and oak. Bottled at cask strength the A’Bunadh finish is intensely robust with a bittersweetness from dark chocolate, oak, and exotic spices.

Shared by the four Aberlour-expressions is their unique and rewarding depth, which is owed to both the production method and the ingredients’ high level of quality.

A Story of Deeds

Aberlour is immersed in legends surviving centuries as well in the Highland surroundings. The distillery is where the Lour burn and the River Spey are joined together, nestled in the Ben Rinnes scenery.
The distillery uses locally grown barley and water from nearby natural springs, and it’s of great importance to Aberlour to remain true to the generations’ worth of passed down craft, passion, and knowledge. The Aberlour today is and always has been shaped by the community, the local sourcing of ingredients as well as the craftsmen and their families, and the art of the craft is Alpha Omega.

Albeit James Fleming established the distillery a long time ago, and he himself is long gone, his spirit is still going strong within the Aberlour spirit. Besides the Aberlour A’Bunadh, James Fleming’s spirit is equally noticeable in Aberlour’s focus on deeds.

The Fleming family motto was ‘Let the deed show’ – the motto has remained true going back to the time of Robert the Bruce, and James Fleming showed the worth of the family motto with his whisky. Instead of boasting about the Aberlour’s distinctive qualities, he resigned himself to ‘let the deed show’, as indeed: The proof was – and still is – in the drinking.

James Fleming was equally a very kind man and did many great deeds for the benefit of others; he built the Penny Bridge over the River Spey after a young boy was killed for instance. The idea of ‘deeds’ is now an integral part of the Aberlour business: With their deeds, Aberlour expresses their values with regards to their production methods, but also to the community. For example, Deed No. 19 speaks to the fact they pour a bottle of Aberlour 12 Year Old into the River Spey as a means to bring luck to the salmon fishing season.

Aberlour produces single malt sherried whiskies of singular quality. The small, but extensive collection delivers rich, full-bodied expressions, and each of them will speak to the collector’s high level of expectations.