ABERLOUR A'BUNADH ALBA SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY

SPEYSIDE, SCOTLAND

Speyside is rightly regarded as the heart of whisky country, with more than half of the world’s Scotch being produced amid this picturesque, fertile landscape. Speyside is home to top names like Macallan, Glenlivet, and Aberlour, the source of today’s offer. Aberlour A’Bunadh (pronounced ah-boo-nuh) means “of the origin” and first released in 1998. Single Malt Scotch was beginning to emerge from a period of sluggish popularity in the 1980s and the style was revolutionary for its time: it was aged entirely in first-fill Oloroso sherry casks and bottled at cask strength without any filtration or added color. A’Bunadh set into motion the concept of cask individuality that has become immensely popular over the past few decades; now, 20+ years later, Aberlour has crafted A’Bunadh Alba, the first ever line extension of the original consumer and critic favorite. Alba means “Scotland” in Scots Gaelic and refers to “Quercus alba,” the species of American oak. Fittingly, this cask-strength, non-chill filtered Scotch is aged exclusively in American oak—specifically first-fill Bourbon barrels—and is an intriguing counterpoint to its Sherry-matured brother. It’s an impressive and powerful expression: while the original displays darker flavors of dried fruit and chocolate, Alba has a profile decadent with notes of baked apple, citrus, vanilla, caramel, smoke, and coconut.

Aberlour’s house style is typically defined by a double cask maturation in both ex-Sherry and ex-Bourbon barrels, so the A’Bunadh and A’Bunadh Alba present a unique opportunity to see the totally unadulterated influence of a single cask style. The Alba is smooth, with a creamy, oily texture and significant weight. Aberlour’s esteemed Master Distiller Graeme Cruickshank describes Alba as “the perfect counterpoint to the classic A’bunadh, while still offering those familiar sweet, fruity notes which are rooted in the new spirit’s DNA there are […] stark differences in color and body, which should intrigue A’bunadh devotees and welcome new drinkers to the concept we lovingly know as ‘the original.’” Aberlour has a reputation for crafting whiskies with incredible depth of character and, indeed, Alba speaks for itself. It’s a remarkable new Single Malt below $100 from a distillery that should be on every Scotch aficionado’s shortlist.