Finished in French Red Wine Casks from the Côte Rôtie appellation, Aberfeldy 18 Years Old, has been released as the third expression of the brand’s French Red Wine Cask Collection.
For this third bottling, Malt Master, Stephanie Macleod has chosen wines predominantly made from the Syrah grape. Offering depth of flavour and complex aromatics with dark red berry characteristics, the grapes origiate in the northern tip of France’s Rhône Valley, an area responsible for a tiny 4–5% of all the wines from the region.
Aberfeldy’s Malt Master, Stephanie Macleod comments: “This style of wine has got these wonderful fruity notes, but also floral notes and so it’s just a match made in heaven for Aberfeldy. These wine casks don’t come around very often, so we when we were offered them we snapped them up immediately.” Adding: “The day they came on to our site we opened them up and I gave them a nose – it was just amazing, I felt there and then this was going to work.”
She continues; “This sumptuous dram is bursting with intense, rich fruity red berry notes of raspberry, lingonberry and red currents smothered in honey. It’s deeply evocative of an Eton Mess as the sugariness and the sharpness of the berries come through. A zing of candied citrus peel brings balance before mellowing to a smooth vanilla and butterscotch sweetness.”
Aberfeldy 18 Years Old, French Red Wine Cask finish is bottled at 43% ABV and will be available in limited runs, initially from the distillery’s online shop, www.shop.dewars.com from 1st September, and then will roll out in the following main markets: USA, Taiwan, China, Germany and France with smaller volumes to be made available in Austria, Sweden Singapore and Malaysia.
For more information, go to aberfeldy.com