Aberlour 12 Year Old Non Chill-Filtered

After reading good reviews, I was looking forward to this bottle. I thought surely being un-chill filtered and bottled at 48% abv, and coming from a reputable distillery, would make for a happy experience.

First impressions: without water - heavily sherried nose.

Taste: Sweet entry, licorice notes, complex multi layered quality single malt. I liked it at first, seemed promising. Consequent pours though, showed a closed up character in terms of nose and taste.

​After 6 months, added a teaspoon of water. After 30 minutes in the glass: Nose: heavy sherry, alcohol, mineral note, stewed red apple, oak,honey. Taste: entry is sweet and spicy, followed by mild bitterness, licorice. Finish: long, oily and sweet, some spice, with a dying drying effect on the tongue. And that's as good as it got.

After another 6 months or so: ​nose - sherry with an underlying apple sweetness. Taste - flat watery taste, sherry, spice. Finish - spicy apple sweetness. Tasted dead.

It took me a year to assess this bottle. It was a completely disappointing and uneventful single malt. The complexity I experienced at first pour never came back. I had hoped it was a sign of positive things to come, but no. Oxidizing didn't help this at all. I still have half a bottle full. The only conclusion I can arrive at, is that it is a bad batch.