Aberfeldy 16 years Madeira cask review and tasting notes
The 16-year-old Aberfeldy Madeira cask is a very soft, gentle and particularly velvety Highland single malt whisky, characterized by oxidized and ripe aromas and flavors, or rather baked in the oven and then dipped in honey and sautéed in a pan with Madeira.
It’s not that he’s evil, but while the 16-year-old Aberfeldy whiskey is already very velvety, soft and spicy, these 12 months of snoozing in Madeira Malmsey and Bual wine barrels weigh it down, making it lose some momentum. and aromatic cleansing. Of course, it is a conscious stylistic choice, the final passage in Sherry, Porto, Madeira or Marsala barrels helps to broaden the spectrum and volume of the whiskey’s aroma, enriches it. It adds wonderful nutty notes of dried fruit, but at the same time makes the fruit of this mellifluous and down very overripe distillate even more syrupy and spicy. And sincerely, proposing such an opulent and sumptuous apparatus and structure with only 40 degrees is a bit counterproductive. The problem with this whiskey is that it cannot be very dynamic, it relaxes and is slow in development. A higher gradation would have added the ideal fire to set off the spark.
It’s not a rejection, it’s a good Highland single malt whiskey, just a little more effort and it would have been excellent. We are doing the hair and the counter hair, also because if you consider that the cost is about 95-100 euros for 1 liter of whiskey, you can’t complain.
Organoleptic characteristics of the Aberfeldy 16 years Madeira cask
Charming nose that envelops you with warmth, spices, splendid medicinal notes, candied oranges, orange marmalade and then this fruit dripping with honey and butter. Caramel and toffee to no end, licorice, vanilla and spicy kit to finish.
On the palate it is a warm whiskey, very velvety, dominated by ripe flavors of dates and plums, it has excellent drinkability, but it lacks a touch of incisiveness. It flows too much, it glides too fast and even in terms of heat and pepper, it’s not that addicting. More than drinking a distillate it seems to bite into a cream apple tart with meringue and sprinkled with vanilla. Overall it’s done well and we can’t complain, but as mentioned a little more thrust and pace would not have been bad. A great value is the delicate and refined spicy range that can also be tasted in the mouth: many nuances, all different, carefully chiseled.
Price of the Aberfeldy 16 years old Madeira cask
You can only find it in airport duty-free shops, but the price is very attractive. For the 1 liter bottle, you will spend 100 euros, if you then have the mileage points even better. As a drink it is very docile, if you love harder or purer whiskeys, it is not the best, but if you are thinking of a gift it is a fantastic bottle.
