Noah's Blog

Aberlour A'Bunadh Batch No. 50. Highland Single Malt Scotch Whiskey, 59.6% ABV

Price per 750mL in Cleveland, OH, USA: $66

• Color: Deep wood, cherrywood-like, reddish hue to it
• Nose: Lots of fruit, plum, peach and cherries, raisins, wood stain, port, sherry, honey, hot sticky jam (5/5)
• Palate: Lots of sherry, also fruit, cherries, and alcohol, it's very strong Maple syrup, honey again, nutmeg, allspice (45/75)
• Palate w/Water: Still a lot of sherry, but a lot of sweet notes come out, more maple syrup, rose hips, hibiscus, and the plum from the nose comes back (60/75)
• Finish: Port wine, gingerbread, fresh-cut mahogany wood, pepper, cayenne, maybe sage? Some herbs. It stays with you a while, even between sips of water (9/10)
• Mouthfeel: Thick, very thick. Leaves a strong coating around the palate (4/5)
• Value: It's very good with a little water added to cut its strength down, so at least I get more mileage from it (4/5)

Total Score: 82/1000

I love sipping on this scotch in while cooking or as a start to my evening. It's strong and goes well with a splash of water or a single ice cube. I'm curious how other batches of A'Bunadh compare to batch 50.

A while ago, I found out about an interesting site called Huffduffer It basically allows you to create a custom podcast feed based on single audio clips/episodes you find around the web. In short, you can tag single podcast episodes from shows you normally do not subscribe to in a feed-at least that is how I use it.

You can add a bookmarlet to your bookmarks tool bar and when you are on a page with a podcast episode or any audio clip link you can click the bookmarklet and it will add that audio file to your huffduffer feed. You can also make your account public (like I did) so that others can enjoy/subscribe to your huffduffer account. I've linked to my feed below in case you're curious. In any event, I highly encourage you to check them out since it offers a great way to easily get audio files downloaded to my phone from sites/podcasts I wouldn't normally subscribe to on a regular basis.

My Huffduffer Page

I've decided to add a series of whiskey reviews to my blog. Once I add the ability to sort by category, it might be a bit easier to navigate the reviews only. But for now, I present to you my review.

This is not the first whiskey or scotch I've had by any means, but it is my first "formal" review. As will be tradition with my whiskey reviews, this was drunk neat, with a sip of iced water between sips.

The Balvenie Doublewood: Aged 12 years. Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whiskey, 43% ABV

Price per 750mL in Cleveland, OH, USA: $53

• Color: Light Amber
• Nose: Fruit, mostly raisins hits first, followed by dried apricots, banana, grapefruit, and hints of strawberry; additionally, there are notes of oak, vanilla, and citric acid (4/5)
• Palate: Sherry hits first, followed by our friend, dried fruit; mostly apricot and grapes; as it sits longer, I get hints of pepper, cardamom, clove, and butter toffee (66/75)
• Finish: The fruit comes back on the finish and lingers with notes of grape jam, banana creme, sweet oak and spice, which is mostly the clove coming back (7/10)
• Mouthfeel: Oily, with a softness about it (5/5)
• Value: At $53 for 750mL, this is definitely a deal for me, would buy again (5/5)

Total Score: 87/100

I thought this was a very enjoyable whiskey. It's flavorful and not too complex. For the price, it's a good deal and can be enjoyed by fans of all types of whiskey, not just scotch.