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Question:
Hello,
Living here in Melbourne, Australia I enjoyed very much a bottle of Aberlour. I then purchased a bottle of a'bunadh from Batch No. 6 bottled straight from cask. One problem. Nowhere on bottle or box does it say how old the wee dram is. Looking forward to some enlightenment!
Thanks, Mark
Answer:
The simple answer is that there is no declared age on the packaging as we could use whisky as young as 6 years old (if the Master Distiller thought it was suitable for the batch he is producing).
The more complex answer is this.... a'bunadh was developed in tribute to the founder of Aberlour, James Fleming. We aspired to create the style of Aberlour he would have produced in 1879 and so the whisky has particular characteristics that are different to the other Aberlour expressions:
It is cask strength - at cask strength certain volatile aromas are retained which add even greater complexity to the nose of Aberlour.
It has not been chill-filtered - consequently the whisky has a luscious, creamy mouth feel as the long chain fatty acid esters have been retained in the whisky.
It is 100% sherry cask matured - because in 1879 bourbon casks would not have been used to mature Scotch whisky.
Each batch is made up of several casks chosen by the distillery team. They have complete freedom to choose the casks that they believe will create this flavourful, rich, creamy taste that a'bunadh has. We have asked that they do not worry about age and so they have the right to use Aberlour that is three years old if they think it is appropriate. In declaring age expression we have to use the age of the youngest whisky so it would actually be misleading to state that a'bunadh is say six years old when the amount of six year old whisky in the batch is small. In reality the range of whiskies used varies from 8 to 15 but this is not definitive - for the reasons given above.
Ultimately we believe the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we hope that you have enjoyed a'bunadh and will continue to do so. It is an excellent example of how hand selected casks can prove that age is only one small variable in creating truly excellent whisky.
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