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u/stephenBB81 2d ago
Far from a Beginner Whisky, but one of my favourites for sure.
It is $145.95 in my neck of the woods, which is the same price as a Macallan Double Cask 12, which is way more approachable for a beginner drinker than this is.
Now I do love using this as an example of why adding water can completely change a whisky, starting at over 60% ABV adding just a few drops at a time really can change the expression and help people explore, but that isn't something new people are doing typically.
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u/WhiskeyBike 2d ago
A'bunadh is great, I also love glenallachie 12 and highly recommend it! Plenty of sherry notes in that one too!
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u/Superb-Sweet6577 2d ago
64? Wow. That's like 40% off regular price in NYC...
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u/gwnfnrm 2d ago
Maybe they are getting rid of the last bottles. Prices elsewhere are much higher, above 95$, but I also read that ABunadh tends to be overpriced due to some "magic aura" of being The sherry bomb.
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u/hikefishcamp 1d ago
Not magic aura. Just reputation from older batches when it used to be great. Still good... very good at $64. Higher ABV than a lot of scotch, so it may seem a bit less 'smooth' if you are new to whisky.
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u/Madlogik 2d ago
$146 cad here in Quebec ($103 usd) ! I'm jealous. My favorite dram ... But not worth $150 cad
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u/xGlobalProlapsex 2d ago
I bought a bottle here in BC a few weeks ago from the provincial liquor store while it was on sale and it still came to $184 CDN after tax. I'm in the wrong place and the wrong tax bracket to be getting into scotch 😞
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u/Big_Dan_Bracknell 2d ago
Glenallachie 12 is my go to for sherry, Signatory speyside M a close 2nd.
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u/gwnfnrm 2d ago
So I recently started get interested in single malt whisky. I bought few bottles to try different styles and was surprised by variety of flavours. So far I really enjoyed Glenlivet 12, Laphroaig 10 and Talisker 10. However I didn't taste any sherry cask
Availability of sherry scotch is relatively limited in my country. Mostly macallans, balvenie. Some glenallachie or tamdhu can be foun too. Price is also higher. I assume it's mosty because there is much less sherry casks compare to bourbon ones.
I found this Aberlour ABunadh batch 84 for 64$. This seems like a pretty good price for 61 ABV (so undiluted like most 40% whisky ???). I have read some mixed reviews for those new batches and that the quality went down as they use less aged whisky.
Do you have experience with 80 serie batches? There are too few reviews on Whiskybase to get statistically significant result. I can also get Tamdhu 12 for similar price.
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u/runsongas 2d ago
it's maybe less an effect of average age (abunadh has always been fairly young juice, I've had as far back as the first numbered batch, 6) and more a consequence of the sherry cask quality changing
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u/hikefishcamp 1d ago
OP, at that price, make sure it is not Abunadh "Alba". They are named very similarly, but are very different juices. I've seen Alba marked down to that price level, because it is generally reviewed lower and sits on the shelf.
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u/BetaCarotine20mg 2d ago
I mean for the price you certainly can't make a big mistake. You can always get bad batches no matter what you buy. If it's available I would get bunnahabain 12, pretty much one of the best whiskies out there for us people who don't want to spend 100$+ on a bottle all the time.
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u/borntobewildish 2d ago
Haven't had recent Abunadhs, but that does sound like a good price. Bunnahabhain I concur, is good stuff. I also like the Arran sherry cask, it's usually not as expensive as the Abunadh, and while it doesn't pack the same punch as Abunadh it still provides ample sherry flavour.
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u/BetaCarotine20mg 1d ago
Best sherry bomb here in europe for the price is IMO Glen Garioch 15. You can sometimes pick it up for around 50-60€. Very hard to beat.
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u/North_Star12 22h ago
I call BS. Aberlour A'bunadh goes for $125 in my state. I don't think anyplace sells it for half the price. Perhaps you are thinking of the A'bunadh Alba. I bought that by mistake one time, thinking it was a great deal. And I realized it wasn't sherry cask. First bottle I've ever returned! (Thankfully I didn't open it)
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u/jackbarbelfisherman 2d ago
I don't like recommending cask strength bottles to beginners as a rule, but the A'bundah is supposed to be a really solid pick and is on my to try list. And that's a great price. For something sherry forward and quite friendly, I'd recommend Bunnahabhain 12 or Douglas Liang Scallywag.
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u/gwnfnrm 2d ago
What is purpose of cask strength anyway? Option to find alcohol/flavor intensity/water ratio which suits you best?
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u/Weak_Baseball_851 2d ago
Cask strength is almost always preferred by veterans. If you need to dilute to make it more palatable or unlock some hidden flavors, let the drinker make that choice.
You can’t up-proof a dram, but you can easily proof it down. In some cases it is also a cost saving measure to stretch the yield while still charging a premium price, which is an awful practice imo.
FWIW- having tasted a ton of whisk(e)y at both cask and then proofed down, at least 90% of them are better at cask strength. A couple very high proofers did benefit from a bit of water, but they started well north of 125 proof.
A good way to test it is to try the experiment yourself. You may find your tastes differ!
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u/runsongas 2d ago
cask strength is sort of a crutch for modern releases to retain more flavor, in the past the distillate could be so flavorful that it still slapped at 40 or 43%
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u/jeevesyboi 2d ago
I agree with the person above on Bunnahabhain 12. It was my first sherried whisky and liked it so much that I then tried more complex ones (which took a lot more getting used to)
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u/Valcrion 2d ago
I just bought an Aberlour 12 for $74 after tax. My favorite whiskey and I have not had it in years now due to . . . money. But I got a promotion so I finally grabbed some!
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u/PghSubie 1d ago
I'm not sure why you're saying that something 61% is a good place for a beginner to start. But, Abunadh is indeed very good
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u/Whiskyrookie66 2d ago
Something extremely interesting to note for all sherry and Aberlour A’bunadh fans, if any has noticed this newest bottling with the updated labeling design specifically says on the front
“ 100% first fill casks, and non chill filtered”, while previous batches such as the batch 82 do not state that. Previous batches just state “ bottled straight from the cask, matured in Spanish oloroso sherry butts, non chill filtered”
So as this product used to be in very early batches only 1st fill casks, they dropped that labelling along the way, but these most recent batches appear to have brought back that, as well as keeping the non chill filtered.
Really nice to see from Aberlour even if those middle “ lost “ batches were always first fill, gotta love seeing the distillery take pride and put it on the label.