Last Night's Tipple

All major Scotch blenders have a core malt around which to base their. For Johnnie Walker, that malt is Cardhu. For Civas Brothers, it's Strathisla. For Dewar's, it's Aberfeldy. The Aberfeldy distillery was built by Tommy Dewar, the marketing genius behind Dewar's, in 1898, during the golden age of Scotch distillery construction. Before building Aberfeldy, Dewar had to buy his malt whiskies from other distilleries, and doing that was always a risky proposition: there could be no guarantee that he could get the whiskies that he needed to keep his blend consistent. Owning his own malt distillery solved that problem.

Such was Dewar's need for malt whisky (and such was the state of Scotch marketing) that Aberfeldy has until recently been almost unavailable as a single malt. Recognizing which way the luxury liquor winds were blowing, Dewar's began bottling a 12 year old of Aberfeldy in 1999 and an 18 year old version a few years later. The bottle classifies Aberfeldy as a Highlands malt, and I suppose that's accurate. The nose has a bit of orange and a hint of sherry sweetness. The palate has some honey overtones on some malty sweetness. It's a clean and enjoyable whisky. It's not earth-shaking or mind-altering, but I would never turn down a bottle.