Aberfeldy 12

August 30th has come along. Sometimes you look forward to events and it feels like they're hard to grasp, so far away. But then it's passed and you look back to the time when you looked forward to it. It has a funny feel to it. Everything passes I guess. Fleeting, like catching wind.

Aberfeldy 12 isn't fleeting though. She's there, and she makes her presence felt. A malty spicy sweet drink tonight we're reviewing.

On the nose Trevor gets a range of flavors, green apples, pear, floral, caramel. Simon gets the apple right away too. Scott agree it's more a tart apple, so he seconds green. He says it smells spicy too.

Simon draws it together and says from some angles you get a cinnamon apple.

Kyle gets the caramel. Sean calls it more toffee.

We cheers.

This is balanced and complex. Kyle points to the nice mouthfeel.

Scott says the complexity gives him trouble, like it's hiding something.

The maltiness and sweetness comes out. Not so much fruity anymore. Kyle calls it marshmallows, Simon goes for malty honey cereal, Sean sticks to toffee.

There's a good amount of spice that oversees all the other flavors.

Sean points to the oaky spicy finish that sticks around.

There's a debate between Simon and everyone else whether this is an approachable scotch for newbies. Simon doesn't think it's that easy to drink, Trevor and Scott think it's too easy to drink.

A reminder for those reading through, these reviews are by amateurs for amateurs, a more down to earth and relatable experience than the high flung expert tastings we commonly find online and on the back of bottles. Something you can rely on to make decisions about which scotch you want in your cabinet. We've also got 5 pallets here, so you can trust that where we overlap is what you will likely get out of the scotch as well.

Ratings:

Everyone except Sean is enjoying this quite a bit tonight. Simon goes for 72, between Aberlour 12 and Highland Park 12. Scott 74, Trevor 76, and Kyle 80. Sean on the low end gives it 54. We average out to 71.2, right around our average bottle rating.

There's not a good consensus whether we would recommend this to people starting out. At $65 CAD it's definitely a starter price, and good value bottle.

Cheers!

The Scotch & Ponder crew