Inside Aberlour’s New 21 and 25 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whiskies

(Photos: Aberlour)

Aberlour is adding a 21 Year Old and a 25 Year Old to its permanent lineup of whiskies, the oldest age statements the Speyside distillery has made part of its core range. Both will release annually in small batches, available at select retailers worldwide following their debuts at Whisky Live Paris at the end of September.

Aberlour 21 Year Old is bottled at 48% ABV and is priced at €270 ($300). The 25 Year Old is bottled at cask strength, 50.8% ABV in this first batch, and costs €650 ($725).

Both whiskies are small releases, with the 25 Year Old being the more limited of the two. Aurelie Torre, vice president of marketing for specialty whisk(e)y at Pernod Ricard, told The Daily Pour that scale is by design.

“That’s the beauty of a small batch, and the 25 years old is even smaller,” Torre said. “We’re talking about a few hundreds of bottles available worldwide, just to give you an idea of how rare and exclusive it is. It’s a little bigger for the 21, but it remains really a small craft, confidential for connoisseurs, and that’s the intent of Aberlour: It’s a distillery that is all about craftsmanship, and by essence, the stock and the release that have been thought through for a long time before being released.”

Aberlour 21 Year Old’s first batch runs to just over 4,800 bottles, Master Distiller Emeritus Graeme Cruickshank told us.

The 25-year-old whisky was blended from a small number of casks, including a single first-fill Sherry hogshead. It is non-chill filtered and bottled at whatever strength the casks deliver. As Cruickshank put it: “Whatever the ABV is when it comes out of the cask, that’ll be the ABV that’s on the bottle.”

The 21 Year Old is different, bottled at 48% this year because that’s how the team thought it drank best.

“We filled it purposely at 48% because we felt that was the right age ABV to kind of showcase the 21 Year Old,” Cruickshank said. “So, I expect it to remain at 48% [in future years].”

Availability varies by market. Torre said the allocation is “fairly well spread” across Europe, Asia, travel retail and the United States, but the U.S. will receive only the 21 Year Old. France, which Torre called a historical market for the brand, gets both.

Both whiskies built on Aberlour’s classic double cask maturation, which matures whisky for equal lengths of time in American ex-bourbon oak and Oloroso sherry casks.

In Aberlour’s double cask maturation, the whisky spends its full maturation period in both ex-bourbon oak and Sherry casks. The team samples casks as they age, then combines them when they’re ready.

“When they’re ready for the run, we take all the samples of the individual casks, and we’ll play about with the casks to get the correct marriage, and then we’ll make what we call a pilot blend of the cask before it goes to bottling,” Cruickshank explained.

Each cask type has its own contribution. According to Cruickshank, the American ex-bourbon oak brings “sweet vanilla, toffee, cinnamon and nutmeg elements,” while sherry casks add “dark chocolate, citrus, raisins.” Selecting which casks are ready for blending at which ages comes down to finding casks at what he called “the pinnacle of their maturation.”

Aberlour 21 Year Old: Now Permanent

Aberlour has released 21-year-old expressions in the past, but this is the first time it’s joining the permanent range. Torre warned against comparing the new whisky to the prior iterations. “My understanding is it’s quite different from the previous 21 years old,” she said. “There is no real element of comparison.”

While Aberlour 21 Year Old will return each year, Torre says no two batches will be exactly the same. “Every year you will be able to discover something new, and you will have some nuances,” Torre said. “That’s really about developing the expertise of the consumers.”

Cruickshank said the house character will hold steady. Batches will vary “depending on how the whisky comes out of those casks,” he said, but they will always uphold “the rich house style that we have at Aberlour.”

Climbing the Age Ladder: What Comes Next?

The new age statements follow a run of older Aberlour releases. In November 2025, the distillery released a 50-year-old whisky, with 20 bottles available globally. Torre described the 21 and 25 as the next step.

“We have already aged expressions such as 12, 14 or 16, and some exclusives in some countries,” she said. “We are bridging step by step now, entering into 21 and 25 as new permanent editions.”

Whether the range climbs higher depends on the stock. “Craftsmanship lies really at the heart, so we refer to the master blending team to say when and if there is a new release that has reached its peak,” Torre said. “So let’s see what the future will bring us when the maturation and cask will allow to release future ages.”

When asked if he’d like to go beyond 25 years of age for the permanent lineup, Cruickshank was noncommittal. “Knowing how the inventory is sitting and how production is for the distillery, we’re comfortable with the 21- and 25-year-old at this time, and the commitment to to produce that in small batches on an annual release [basis],” he said.

As for the new volume of Aberlour 21 and 25 Year Old, Torre said bottle counts will stay low in future years. “It will remain smaller. That’s the intent,” she said. “It’s to preserve the craft, the rarity of the release, to keep it exceptional as it should be. There is no intent to grow double; it doesn’t make any sense. That’s not the mindset of Aberlour.”

Cruickshank says his personal favorite Aberlour age has long been 16 years old. “I’ve always leant towards Aberlour 16-year-old,” he said. “That really is the epitome of the double cask process for me.”

Yet, these older expressions deliver something the 16 can’t. “We’re pushing the boundaries of aging whiskies in this rare and collectible bracket, and going beyond that sweet spot gives you a chance to discover new dimensions of a product that’s already great,” he said.

Tasting Notes and Review: How Good Are Aberlour 21 and 25 Year Old?

We joined Aberlour for a launch event in Paris and had the chance to sample both expressions.

Lower price and rarity be damned, Aberlour 21 Year Old is, in our opinion, the standout of the pair. It’s nutty and rich, full of baking spice and malt, with a warm, lively palate. Read our full review of Aberlour 21 Year Old.

Aberlour 25 Year Old is bready on the nose and fruit-forward on the finish, with considerably more oak than the 21. Read our full review of Aberlour 25 Year Old.