label: Balvenie

43% alc./vol.
Balvenie Distillery, Dufftown, Speyside, Scotland

It's been a long time since we visited any Balvenie on these pages.

Here is an old sample of Balvenie Doublewood 17 years old which must date at least from my last visit to WhiskyLive in Toronto in 2015 lololol… 2 types of cask, 17 years old, it can't be bad that's for sure.

But as the following Chinese proverb said so well:

The only thing you can be sure of is that nothing is ever certain.

Not bad red with its half sherry.

Nose:
Very smooth, so much so that it somewhat masks the usual notes of sherry cask. Sweet grapes, dates, prunes and orange peel.

Taste:
Sweet sherry. After all the fruits of the nose, a beautiful leather takes its place.

Finish:
Spices and leather. Warm and long like the best sherry casks.

Balance:
The sweetest Balvenie to date. Age is a plus.

Note: ★★★★★

47.8% alc./vol.
Balvenie Distillery, Dufftown, Speyside, Scotland

Here is a superb Balvenie 15 years old which is now part of the regular portfolio of the distillery.

The 15 Single Barrel Sherry Cask is a single malt fully aged in sherry casks that has been marketed in 2014. Each of these lots is numbered by hand and comes from a single barrel not giving more than 650 bottles. We can say that none of these lots is identical to another.

As said so well the French tennis champion and founder of the brand Lacoste, Jean René Lacoste, says The Crocodile or The Alligator (1904-1996):

In an avalanche, no snowflake never feels responsible ...

A beautiful orange rusty earth at the height of the most authentic sherry casks.

Nose:
Quite fresh and dashing for a cask sherry. The generous alcohol content is full of juicy red grapes, burnished toffee and caramel. Very relaxing.

Taste:
Full texture of presence. Grapes, caramel, chocolate and dates. Ginger and nutmeg make a shy and late appearance.

Finish:
Pleasant and durable, on a beautiful carpet of hot and spicy sherry. We stay on a beautiful impression of dried fruits.

Balance:
A solid cask sherry as a whole. Did one need to age him as much? Would the result have been the same before? A sensible choice not to lower your alcohol level further. The high price is not a plus, but good.

Note: ★★★★★