Aultmore 11-Year-Old 2000 Provenance Review And Tasting Notes
Aultmore 11-Year-Old 2000 Provenance is a lovely, elegant, unpretentious whisky. It had been dozing in the Speyside area of my collection for a while, but I finally decided to open it. It didn’t disappoint, but it didn’t make a bang either.
As you well know, the bottles with the Provenance label are bottlings of the Douglas Laing company, which since 1948 has been selecting, bottling and enhancing particular vintages. Their philosophy is simple: find unique and unrepeatable barrels and offer them to enthusiasts.
Not all bottles are necessarily tremendous or perfect. However, the painstaking work of sorting is philologically essential to understand the authentic taste of each area. Indeed, sometimes it is the strangest barrels that become amazing bottlings.
In this case, we have in the bottle a single malt from Speyside, from a splendid distillery, the Aultmore, which produces elegant, sharp, very floral and sinuous spirits in development. It is quite the opposite of the Macallan (from which it is not far away), just to give you a stylistic coordinate.
Organoleptic characteristics of Aultmore 11 Year Old 2000 Provenance
The nose is ethereal, herbaceous and very thin, sharp, almost pungent at the approach. Spices and chocolate are there, but they are in the background. The brand of the wood feels, even if it is not intrusive. The fruity tones are sunny, dazzling: endless citrus. There is a touch of smoke, just a little, just a puff. Finish of bergamot and vanilla. There aren’t a thousand facets, but what it offers is clean and tasty.
It is rocky, sculpted, hard, dry, and rough on the palate. It does not bend to oxidation, despite being aged for 11 years in barrels used for the production of Sherry. And this is the big difference between Aultmore and other giants like Macallan or Glenmorangie: the delicate touch of Sherry. The dried fruit feels in the mouth, it tickles you with those Marsalati flavors, but they are not so heavy as to upset the malt. The biscuit note and the fruit are always in the foreground and shine with crystalline purity.
Let’s enter the personnel field. Do you like complex and pure single malts or the more sumptuous and rich ones? You see, this is part of the Speyside Spartans. Of course, there is Sherry, but the malt dominates. You will feel the flavors of the fields, flowers, herbs, the wind and the salt of the river Spey on your palate.
The balance is good, the depth discreet, but not exceptional. It has a lot to offer, but don’t ask him for the moon. He does his duty as a good standard-bearer of Speyside malt and this is precisely the beauty of this bottling. It’s a classic case of terroir exaltation. He doesn’t want to overdo it but to offer a glimpse of a small piece of Scotland.
Price
65-70 euro.
Food Pairings
Chocolate, salmon terrines, brisket and pulled pork, chocolate cupcakes, cheesecakes, ciambella, Tiramisù or chocolate salami.