Review #83: Aultmore 6yrs 2007/2014, Kintra Single Cask, 53.7% abv, cask #90026, sherry butt

the future of whisky

So this is all of 6yrs old, from a distillery that usually sends their juice into White Label, and of course sherry-enhanced. At least it's honestly labelled, cask strength, and NCF. But the trend is clearly going in the direction of younger ad more enhanced, from more obscure distilleries. Still, this could be a gem.

nose: wow, really very good. pleasantly chalky at first, then lots of nicely winey baked apples with cinnamon, some fresh tobacco and old wood glue, milk chocolate, a sprig of parsley, peonies, marshmallows. Still and little young and edgy, but I'd probably think it was old and praise its youthfulness if I didn't know better -- nice combination of zesty and sweet.

a lot rougher on the palate. the alcohol shows, and there's some bitterness -- unsweetened cocoa for a moment, then the candied flavors come through -- buttery toffee and almonds. but the fruit and vegetal flavors turn sour.

the finish is long and turns apply again, but it's nothing special. chalk+wood glue+ethanol, with some spicy vanilla to balance things out, but not enough.


I'm not sure how the nose can be so good and the palate so not very good in such a young whisky. Scientists should be working on that! although they'll probably say that the whisky should be aged longer in better casks. In any case, hard to score.

score: 83