An older review today. Lately I’ve been emptying some bottles and a LOT of samples, ever since the beginning of the year. A couple dozen that I’ve gone through since were not reviewed here yet, and I even found some that I apparently reviewed in the past but hadn’t remembered.

So, today, a 12 year old Aberlour from Archives from back when I apparently didn’t just buy anything from Archives that falls within my price range.

Aberlour tends to be on the sweet side, and I tend to like sweet whiskies slightly less than the more hearty ones. However, when Aberlour is good, it is quite glorious. Let’s find out where this little Speyside whisky sits!

Sniff:
Very modern, very oak forward. Hints of vanilla and baking spices. A whiff of coconut, dry as well.

Sip:
The palate is rather strong, and fairly generic. It still does tick all the boxes of a whisky that should be popular. Lots of oak for a 2006 vintage, lots of vanilla and sponge-cakiness.

Swallow:
The finish is more complex with a shift to more spices, more wood influence without it being all about wood itself.

This whisky tastes like a very modern, very generic bourbon cask matured single malt. There’s quite a lot of vanilla and coconut, some to-be-expected spices and pastry notes. Nothing out of the ordinary, and it could also have come from a handful of other Speyside distilleries. It’s absolutely not a bad whisky, just quite generic.

And it’s modern. By that I mean it tastes a bit like it was made to taste like this with early-on cask selection. Getting a very active cask for new make spirit to direct it into a direction like this that has many fans. Contrary to randomly selecting casks when they’re ready and taste great.

85/100