The 16 Year Old Double Cask is the older sibling in Aberlour's regular double-matured range, sitting above the 12 and the 14. As with the rest of the core line-up, the spirit is aged separately in traditional American oak and in Spanish sherry casks, then married together before bottling. The extra time in wood is the point: at sixteen years the sherry contribution has had room to settle into the spirit rather than ride on top of it.
The nose offers toffee apple, raisin and nutmeg, with a polished, slightly waxy oak note in the background. There is a hint of orange peel — a frequent visitor to Aberlour glasses — and a faint suggestion of dark honey. The whole effect is composed and unhurried, the work of a distillery that has been doing this since Fleming's day.
On the palate the whisky is rounded and gently sweet. Dried fig and milk chocolate arrive first, followed by baked pear and a slow build of sherry spice — clove, a little cinnamon, a faint pepper. At 40% the body is on the lighter side of what the cask seems to want to give, and one occasionally wishes for a little more strength to push the flavours further; but the balance is good and the whisky drinks easily.
The finish is medium-long, warm and even, with raisin, oak and a final touch of clove. The 16 is a relaxed, well-mannered Speysider — perhaps less dramatic than the cask-strength A'bunadh sitting beside it on the shelf, but more contemplative, and in its quiet way no less convincing.
