One of the best things about whisky are the friends you make through it. Like any hobby or fandom, whisky provides an immediate connection and, seemingly endless, topic of conversation. Thanks to reviews on reddit, discord, instagram, and this old website, I have been fortunate enough to meet loads of great people that an introvert such as myself would never have otherwise.

This dram came from such a meeting; while traveling through Singapore a year ago I had the chance to swap bottle samples with a good friend, including this whisky.

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Whisky: Aberlour 8 Year (1965) for Rinaldi Import

Country/Region: Scotland/Speyside

ABV:50%

Cask: Oak

Age: 8 Years (Distilled 1965)

Notes: Soft and fruity with plenty of old wood and papers— like pulling out an old shoebox and finding a pair of worn leather shoes while looking for the cardboard box where you keep your extra peppercorns, anise, and baking spices (no, this has never happened to me, but I can imagine). Resinous at times, spirited as well, with a touch of nail polish that softened toward annatto seeds and wooden boxes of pears. Light-bodied with precious soft summer fruits wrapped in old newspaper— mildly fruity with plenty of paper and hints of wooden shipping pallets. Woody resins lingered further in the background with polished oak and antiques— had I stumbled into an attic full of old furniture? A touch of leather and peppercorn pulled me out with brown sugar and a hint tobacco ash at the end.  The finish was long and musty with pepper and slightly floral tea. 

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Score: 7+ (85)

Mental Image: Pie Table at the Antique Roadshow

Narrative & Notes: A bottle like this is hard to meaningfully evaluate— the whisky spent more time sitting in glass than the cask.  Distilled sixty years ago, it practically came from another world. There was some old bottle effect, or OBE, to the flavor profile, especially some of those cardboard and acetone notes, but they were minor and emphasized the venerable nature of the whisky.  The profile was remarkably coherent and clear for something so old and tinged with OBE.  The finish was wonderfully long, so that even if this was not the more complex or richest profile, it still had some lovely staying power.

Overall, delightful stuff— I am not sure I found it quite transcendent, but it was a very good whisky.  I suspect the age and rarity is pushing the score up slightly here as I wonder if I would mark an eight year Aberlour from 2015 quite the same?  Perhaps— though I would expect a more recent bottle to be significantly punchier and more cask dominant than this.