Aultmore

Region: Speyside

Owner: John Dewar & Sons (Bacardi)

Founded: 1896

The thing is that Aultmore is supposedly every blender’s dream. It’s supposed to be an ideal bedrock as they say. However, after years of tasting the independent releases, I couldn’t get a handle on what the style of the spirit was, so I had to taste the distillery releases if I was ever going to get a figure that out. And….

Two words – Batch Variation!!! Now. I will say that the distillery releases are absolutely fabulous and definitely worth seeking, but take the 21 year old for example. I have tasted it blind on two occasions and from my notes you would have thought that I had been tasting two completely different whiskies, where one was deep and barley’d, as you would expect it to be the other was fresh and citric. Both were absolutely fabulous but talk about chalk and cheese.

The same can be said for the 25 year old as well. The first time I encountered it, I would describe it as a classic, mature, American oak aged Speyside malt, the next time it was, hello! Sherry! Talk about confusing!  Anyway, both bottlings were gorgeous, but different, so even though there is no denying the quality of the spirit that the distillery is bottling, you never quite know just exactly what you are going to get.

(Image Copyright James Mortimer Photography)