Aberlour 16 Double Cask is the twelve with another four years of experience and a much bigger bill, and it is a lovely whisky that makes me think rather hard about the price. This Aberlour 16 Year Old Double Cask review is about a 43% Speyside malt matured in bourbon and sherry casks that costs about £105, tastes of toffee, dried fruit and orange with a warm spice, and is a richer, rounder and more polished version of the one I recommend to everybody.
I like it a great deal. It has the same shape as the twelve with more depth, more length and more polish. It is a very good whisky, and it is not three times as good, which is roughly what the price suggests.
Aberlour sits near the town of Aberlour on Speyside, owned by Chivas Brothers (Pernod Ricard), and the Aberlour distillery is one of the quieter names in the region. The 16 Double Cask is matured in two types of wood, ex-bourbon American oak and ex-sherry European oak, and then married together before bottling. It carries a sixteen-year age statement.
The strength is 43% in the bottles I could find on sale now, though older bottles were 40%, so check the label. The price information I found ranged from about £100 to £120 depending on the shop. Sherry cask versus bourbon cask explains the two woods, and the Aberlour 12 Double Cask is the sibling that most people start with.
A toffee apple, a strip of orange peel and a pinch of cinnamon in warm oatmeal.
The nose is rich and fruity, with toffee, dried fruit and orange peel, then a little vanilla and a warm baking spice. It smells deep and round, with a gentle sherry sweetness and a good deal more oak than the twelve.
On the palate it is smooth and full, with toffee, raisins and orange, then cinnamon, a hint of nuts and a soft, drying oak. The 43% gives it a good body, and the texture is silky and a little oily. The balance of bourbon and sherry is very good, and the extra age shows in the polish.
The finish is long, with oak, spice and a lingering fruity sweetness. It is warm, clean and very satisfying.
A few drops of water bring out the toffee and settle the spice, and I think it is better for it. It also gets richer as it sits, and the orange comes forward. At 43% it takes water well, and a patient pour pays off.
Neat, with a few drops of water, in a good glass. It is a very good sipper and a lovely after-dinner whisky. It makes a rich Old Fashioned, where the dried fruit and the spice are a natural fit, and a very good Manhattan.
It goes well with a fruit cake, a mild blue cheese and a long evening. It is a very good gift for somebody who loves the twelve and wants to see what more age can do.
At about £105 it scores 80. Aberlour 12 Double Cask scores 81 at about £38, which is a point better for £67 less. Glenfarclas 12 scores 80 at about £48, the same score for £57 less. The Balvenie 12 DoubleWood scores 83 at about £48, and GlenDronach 12 scores 82 at about £50.
That is a very hard table for the sixteen. It is the most expensive bottle in the group by a wide margin, and the twelve from the same distillery beats it by a point for £67 less. It is a lovely whisky, and it is a lesson in how little extra age sometimes buys.
Some whiskies improve a great deal with age, and some improve a little. The Aberlour Double Cask was already so well balanced at twelve that four more years add polish and not much else. The sixteen is smoother and a bit deeper, and the character is the same.
That is the awkward truth about the range. If the twelve were a rough draft, the sixteen would be the finished book. As it is, the twelve is a very good book and the sixteen is the same book in a nicer binding. I would buy the twelve and spend the difference on something else.
Four more bottles, from the better buys to the sibling.
The twelve-year-old, a point better and £67 cheaper.
A rich, traditional sherry malt with the same score for £57 less.
A sherry-finished malt that scores three points higher for £57 less.
A rich Highland malt that scores two points higher for £55 less.
Aberlour 16 Double Cask is toffeed, orangey, rounded and beautifully made, a more polished version of a very good whisky. It is far too expensive next to the twelve, and the twelve is the one to buy.
Caskable score: 80 out of 100.
Toffee, dried fruit, orange and warm spice
Rich and rounded, with toffee, raisins and cinnamon
Long, warm and gently sweet, with oak and spice
A richer, deeper Double Cask that is lovely and a long way from the twelve on value.
Thomas Grønvold is the founder of Caskable and a whisky enthusiast who believes the best way to learn about whisky is simply to drink it, compare it, and stay curious. From supermarket favourites to bottles from distilleries around the world, he writes about what he actually tastes and experiences, without pretending you need to be an expert to enjoy a good dram.
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