ABERLOUR
One of several jewel distilleries in Speyside that has a rich seam of great bottlings going back to the 1960s and earlier. Although often sherry influenced there are many great examples of Aberlour without the sherry cloak and that distillery character can veer from toffee sweetness with delicate gingery spice to more punchy waxy and buttery notes with a robust mineral edge. Unusually the best examples are generally the officials, the old 8 year old dumpy bottling from the 1960s-80s being numerous, varied and consistently excellent - especially the 50% versions. Other longer aged official expressions tend to be beautifully sherry driven and terrific examples of the best Speyside can offer. Wonderful independent examples can be found from Signatory and Moncreiff among others.