Review #944 - SMWS 73.170 'Grassland Gallivant' - Aultmore 13 Year
Aultmore, which means 'big river' in Gaelic, was established back in 1895; it went into production in 1897, and while it has changed hands several times in its history, it current resides under the ownership umbrella of Bacardi/Dewar's. This distillery is a substantial operation with a production capacity of over 3 million litres of spirit per year, all of which is unpeated, and most of which goes into blended Scotch whiskies.
This single cask example from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society was fully matured in an ex-bourbon cask, specifically a first fill barrel, which should give us a nice insight into the true character of this distillate. It was aged for a total of 13 years; the cask strength presentation at the end of that time is 54.5% ABV. Aultmore is supposed to have a nice weight to their spirit due to a relatively wide set of cut points - let's see if that comes across in our tastings.
SMWS 73.170 'Grassland Gallivant' - Aultmore 13 Year
Scotland/Speyside - Single Malt
Price: USD 140 (2025)
Age Statement: 13 Years
Strength: 54.5% ABV
Cask Makeup: First fill ex-bourbon barrel
Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled October 17, 2011; 240 bottles
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 7 months; bottles at 100%, 80%, and 60% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Pears and cotton candy, white grape - quite fruity, even a bit of strawberry bubblegum. It's malty, a bit of a classic ex-bourbon single malt nose; fresh cut grass, vanilla, golden honey, and dry oak arrive. We also find vegetal malt, barley sugar, hay, and floral notes; it's quite bright.
Palate: Pears again, lots of warming hay and malt notes, good strength and a bit spirity. Drying oak combines with grape skin tannins and some menthol notes for a drying side; rose petals, tinned peaches, and clementine oranges come next. Decent complexity here across tastings, actually: Manuka honey, tangy nectarine, lavender, grass clippings, Wheaties breakfast cereal, and Tootsie Roll candies were accents.
Finish: More tannins and hay, dry malty grains, but also a nice bright fruit side: honeydew melon, banana, and grapefruit. There's a bit of spice like oak and cayenne pepper, and we also get a soft sweetness from honey. Grass notes and lots of cereal grains linger in the aftertaste; it's a medium length finish.
Final Note: For us, this is just a classic example of unpeated, ex-bourbon single malt whisky in the typical Speyside or Highland style. Lots of those bright fruit notes, grassy malt, a bit of oak - it's a nice mixture of sweet and tart and spicy at different times, which keeps things interesting. Across the tasting sessions we did get a decent number of flavor notes, especially on the palate; however, we wouldn't say this is the most complex dram overall. A sold whisky, pleasant to drink, but it doesn't have any special flavor hook that brings us back time and time again.
Value for this bottle is a little below average in our books. It's a good whisky, but $140 is asking a lot for a relatively standard ex-bourbon single malt, even if it's bottled at cask strength.
Our Rating: 7.0 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 5.39
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
