Aberlour A'bunadh - 12 Year Old - Sterling Silver Label - 1999 Release

A much-loved Speyside distillery, Aberlour was founded in 1879 and was expanded to four stills in 1973, the year before the distillery’s parent company S. Campbell & Son was acquired by French drinks giants Pernod Ricard. Aberlour joined Chivas Brothers’ portfolio when Pernod bought Chivas in 2001, and in 2022 a major expansion plan was announced, with a new stillhouse that will double Aberlour’s capacity to just under 8m litres per year. 

Campbell & Son bottled official Aberlour single malts in the same chunky square bottle as their White Heather blend and these early bottlings from the 1960s and 1970s are still popular today, particularly those bottled at 50%. The acclaimed cask strength sherried Aberlour a’bunadh first appeared in the late 1990s and has been a mainstay of the range ever since. Independent Aberlour is occasionally bottled for the UK by Cadenhead’s, Douglas Laing and others.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.