Review by: ZoidbergOnTheRocks
I could have sworn I had a sample of Aberlour Casg Annamh kicking around, and I was gonna try this SMWS bottle alongside that. But for the life of me I just can’t find it. So I’ll pour a little of the A’Bunadh #50 from my last review as a point of comparison.
Tasted on 2/13/2021, neat in a Glencairn.
Aberlour 17 Year SMWS 54.63 “2000: and some face odyssey”
This was a bargain bottle I got in the last few minutes of an auction a few years ago: £60.
Distillery: Aberlour
Bottler: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS)
Region: Scotland, Speyside
ABV: 54.2%, cask strength
Age: 17 years old. Distilled on 02/10/2000.
Cask type: 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered. One of 210 bottles, from a single cask #54.63.
Nose: bright fruit w/ orange, tangerine, and peaches. Some melon. Caramel. Vanilla. Ginger. Honey. A touch of camphor. A little marzipan. Tea. Slightly grassy. With Water: more camphor, otherwise similar.
Taste: very fruity and sweet. Orange, tangerine, melon. Caramel. Some peppery heat. Nice oily mouthfeel. Tea. Honey. With Water: same.
Finish: lots of sweet fruits. Some nice ginger spice, caramel, and that touch of camphor from the nose is back. A bit of tea and honey. Some bitter oak comes quickly and lingers until the end. Medium length finish. With Water: same.
Summary: this is pretty one dimensional around sweet fruit. No real complexity here, and it’s pretty consistent from beginning to end. Bright, sweet fruit with some honey, caramel, etc. Interestingly there is a bit of camphor mixed in there. Not a lot of change with water. Good mouthfeel. Overall, a good bottle, but nothing special.
Would I buy a bottle? nah, not unless you find it as a super-bargain or are looking for some odd one-off Aberlour.
Final Score: 77.
Comparison
Order: A’Bunadh #50 > SMWS 54.63
Two wildly different drams, but one is a clear cut above the other. The A’Bunadh #50 is rich, complex, and a delicious sherry bomb with good complexity. The SMWS here is good, but it’s really simple, one dimensional, and is honestly fairly unremarkable. It’s also really off-character for Aberlour, even if you try to discount the lack of sherry casks involved.
This is, though, one of the reasons I love IB single casks. Sometimes you get to experience something really unique about a distillery that you otherwise wouldn’t get exposed to: Aberlour in a single old ex-bourbon cask.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 