Aberfeldy 14 Years Old 2009 Cask #16602907 (Connoisseurs Choice)

Distilled at Aberfeldy in 2009 and matured 14 years in a single Oloroso sherry cask numbered 16602907, bottled by Gordon & MacPhail in 2024 at cask strength 55.4%. Sister cask to the firm's earlier release from cask 16602905 (the 13 year old), drawn from the next pair of sequential casks in the same vintage parcel and given an additional year of warehouse rest. Released under the Connoisseurs Choice Cask Strength sub series for the European specialist trade. 267 bottles.

Long fermentation Aberfeldy wash from the four still configuration, distilled in 2009 under John Dewar & Sons (Bacardi) ownership. Filled into a single Oloroso sherry hogshead and aged 14 years at G&M's Elgin warehouses. Bottled at 55.4% with no chill filtering and no caramel adjustment, the CC Cask Strength specification.

The extra year over its sister cask shifts the balance: ellagitannin and gallic acid extraction from the European oak runs further, deepening the tannin grip; melanoidins and oxidative acetals develop more fully, pushing walnut skin and aged fig into the foreground; and sotolon (3 hydroxy 4,5 dimethyl 2(5H) furanone) accumulates a touch more, adding aged Cognac and burnt sugar lift. Aberfeldy's heather honey and beeswax core, driven by ethyl laurate, ethyl myristate and heavier alcohols, holds the centre but the sherry frame is dominant at this point.