Whisky Discovery #24

The Balvenie 17 Year Old ‘Peated Cask’ (43% abv, OB, Bottled 2011)

Speyside Single Malt Whisky

Circa £80

 

One of the other Balvenie malts tasted during the evening at the V&A for The Balvenie 40 Year Old launch.

This cracking peated cask Balvenie was first released in 2010. It was aged traditionally to begin with, before a finish in casks that previously held peated whisky.

In 2001, a heavily peated batch of barley was distilled at The Balvenie Distillery and was allowed to mature until The Balvenie Malt Master, David Stewart, decided it was time to rejuvenate the maturation process and so the whisky was transferred to newly prepared traditional casks.

The casks that had originally held the peated liquid had taken on much of its character and so David decided to experiment by filling them with 17 year old Balvenie for a short period. The result was an intensely peaty whisky. Marrying this liquid with 17 year old Balvenie finished in new American oak casks produced The Balvenie Peated Cask, a complex single malt that is rich and spicy with layers of smokiness.

The result is well balanced and not overpowering, and this will certainly be on my wish list.

Whisky Discovery #23

The Balvenie 15 Year Old ‘Single Barrel’ (47.8% abv, OB, Bottled 2011)

Speyside Single Malt Whisky

Circa £48

One of the other Balvenie malts tasted during the evening at the V&A for The Balvenie 40 Year Old launch.


The Balvenie Single Barrel is a 15 year old single malt which is drawn from a single traditional oak whisky cask of a single distillation. 

Whilst each cask is subtly different, The Balvenie Malt Master selects only those casks which have the essential characteristics of The Balvenie Single Barrel, particularly honey, vanilla and oaky notes. Each bottling forms a limited edition of no more than 350 hand-numbered bottles - so each bottle is unique and unrepeatable.An individual numbered 15 year old from selected single ex-bourbon casks from the Balvenie distillery, this is a single malt both fruity and honeyed with an excellent finish.

Nose: Delicate sweetness one expects from Balvenie. Honey and dried mixed peel.
Palate: Husky sweetness. Barley lies on a bed of juicy ripe fruit.
Finish: Climaxes with barley and bourbon spiciness peaking most spectacularly.

Whisky Discovery #22

The Balvenie 12 Year Old ‘ Signature’ Batch No. 4 (40% abv, OB, Bottled 2011)

Speyside Single Malt Whisky

Circa £25-30

A November bonus bottle

The ‘Brucie bonus bottle’ from the lovely Balvenie people at the end of our evening in The V&A Museum.

The Balvenie Signature Aged 12 Years is a classic marriage of The Balvenie matured in the three most traditional cask types, first fill bourbon, refill bourbon and sherry. Produced in small, numbered batches, each cask used is hand selected by Malt Master David Stewart to ensure he achieves Signature’s unique character of honey, spice and subtle oak and each batch is allowed time to harmonise in a traditional marrying tun. David Stewart crafted The Balvenie Signature to mark his 45th year in the whisky industry and 2011 saw the release of Batch 4.

NOSE: Rich and complex with honey, citrus fruits and vanilla oak notes.

TASTE: Rich and honeyed with a hint of sherry fruitiness. A spiciness of cinnamon and nutmeg and a subtle oakiness develop with time.

FINISH: Warm and lingering.

Whisky Discovery #21

The Balvenie 40 Year Old Batch No. 2 (48.5%, OB, Bottled 2011)

Speyside Single Malt Whisky

£2,500

 

The Balvenie 40 - 2nd release

Those wonderful people at Balvenie called me up to inform me that I had won a pair of tickets to sample their new limited release of a special 40 year single malt.

You don’t turn down opportunities like this, as they don’t come along to often. The event was being held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

I invited friend Colin Johnson to the event, who almost bit my arm off at the opportunity. On arrival we were treated as VIPs as most of the other guests were from the trade.

We were able to sample a good deal of The Balvenie range of single malts, well certainly everything that had been set up for sampling!

We tasted their 12 YO Doublewood, 12 YO Signature, 15 YO Single Cask, 17 YO Peated Cask and of course their 21 YO Port Wood. Then the 40 YO was brought out. Only 150 bottles produced in this limited edition bottling, 80 for the UK market and 70 for the rest of the world. With a retail price set at £2,500 per bottle, two were opened for our pleasure.

And oh what a pleasure it was ! We must have spent a good five minutes exploring the nose, it might have been longer and certainly needed to be – it was awesome ! Then the taste – again out of this world ! I would have to re-evaluate all my previous tastings to get things back into some perspective. So much going on in their and the finish – again spectacular. There was only one glass each (although it was a generous measure) and unless the jackpot comes up, way out of my price range, but it was a wonderful experience. To end the evening we were each presented with a bottle from their entry level malts, Colin came away with a bottle of Doublewood and for me The Signature. Thank you Balvenie !

My Whisky Shelf 4

The collection at the end of October - it just about fits on the whisky shelf

Whisky Discovery #20

Ardbeg 10 Year Old (46% abv, OB, Bottled +/- 2011 100cl)

Islay Single Malt Whisky

Circa £60

 

October's Official Dram

Another Islay single malt and their standard ‘entry level’ malt that critics have raved about. 

The stills at Ardbeg differ from others on Islay, being taller and having a curious purifier on the spirit still. Certainly this is a highly peated and complex whisky.

I bought this in Stavanger Airport on the way back from a business trip in Norway, so hence the full litre bottle.

I am an Islay fan and have other Ardbeg expressions on my wish list, and with so many great distilleries on this small West Coast Island I can’t wait to take a trip and visit them all !

Whisky Discovery #19

Highland Park 12 Year Old (40% abv, OB, Bottled +/- 2011 70cl)

Island Single Malt Whisky

Circa £25

September's official addition

All the way from the Orkney’s, Highland Park is rich and smoky. 

Made from barley malted over burning peat, this Highland malt has a smoky sweetness and a glowing amber colour. Smoothly opulent and tingling with spices and hints of orange peel through to a powerful finish.

Highland Park 12 Year Old remains one of the gold standard malts for other distillery bottlings to aspire to. With a delicious sweetness (heather-honey is their preferred description) and a warming, silky mouthfeel, this is a whisky that never lets you down.

“The greatest all-rounder in the world of malt whisky”. Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson’s Malt Whisky Companion ’The Best Buy amongst single malt whiskies.’ Whiskies to Warm To, Which Consumer Magazine.

I love it - so very smooth !

Whisky Discovery #18

The Balvenie 12 Year Old Double Wood (40% abv, OB, Bottled +/- 2011 70cl)

Speyside Single Malt Whisky

Circa £25

August's official bottle

With Balvenie being fresh on my mind, and also on my wish list I thought I ought to buy this entry level malt for the collection. 

The Double Wood is their entry level malt, and a delicate Speyside which is first aged in oak and then in sherry wood. With soft notes layered with honey and vanilla for a subtle sweetness. 

Taste it and you’ll notice it’s nuttiness, sherry and even cinnamon.

A smashing dram !

Whisky Discovery #17

The Balvenie 21 Year Old Port Wood (40% abv, OB, Bottled +/- 2011 70cl)

Speyside Single Malt Whisky

Circa £85

Thank you Balvenie

Oh what a lucky boy I was in July !

A fourth bottle and a gift from The Balvenie ! I joined as many whisky sites as possible in my quest for knowledge, and answered an email from the Balvenie regarding a meeting in London. I was accepted to join their ‘focus group’ and spent an  enjoyable evening discussing The Balvenie, their website, and drinking their whisky. For taking part was given this bottle of 21 year old single malt, a leather bound hip flask and my expenses paid for the train ticket to and from London.

This whisky is created by the hand of a master blender, David Stewart. delicate Port wine flavours, silky and full bodied.

Whisky Discovery #16

Talisker 10 Year Old (45.8% abv, OB, Bottled +/- 2011 70cl)

Islay Single Malt Whisky

Circa £25

July's official addition

Talisker’s signature bottling, and my official July addition to my collection. 

Made on the shores of the Isle of Skye, you can sense seawater saltiness alongside this malt’s peaty smokiness. It tastes of dried fruit in a smoke surround with barley malt flavours followed by a warm, peppery, sweet finish.

I love it and am keen to try more from this distillery!

April 2013 update

I wrote this almost two years ago and was just six months into my whisky journey. This bottle has long gone, but I have been fortunate to try some fantastic whisky from Talisker since writing this post (this was written pre-blogging days and was part of my original liquid log) trying both the Talisker 25 and Talisker 30 at the first show Kat and I ever attended, Whisky Live 2012. I've also tasted the 57º North, however the 18 Year Old and Distiller's Edition have alluded me so far, but are both on my list to buy 

We've recently been sent some new Talisker releases to review and reading back through these notes for the 10 Year Old decided I really ought to do something about this post, and so went out and revisited the 10 Year Old, was it still as good as I remembered?

So What Did I Think?

Firstly I was pleased to note that I still enjoyed it. There's a real maritime note to this malt with a definite seafood liquor note to it reminding me of raw seafood being prepared, sitting on a plate ready to be cooked, raw tiger prawns, squid, sea bass and mackerel, our kitchen is often full of these ready to be tossed into the wok. Beach camp-fire notes start to creep through the smell of the sea, salty driftwood smouldering. The spicy white pepper eventually shows itself after a little while in the glass.

On the palate there's a gentle sweetness of honey at first before the spicy white pepper builds up it's presence, The beach camp-fire gives up a charred wood taste and I could detect soft notes of wild fennel. The gentle smoke and white pepper remain on the long finish that has a pinch of salt too. The empty glass on the following morning smells of that beach camp-fire again, though it's been left to die out overnight now.

So yes, it's still as good as I remembered it and should get a bottle for the shelf again soon. However my shelf is overflowing and I really want a bottle of DE or 18 Year Old first, and if my lottery numbers came up last night, might even run out for a bottle of the 35 Year Old that I missed at last years Whisky Exchange Whisky Show, but I wouldn't hold your breath!

My Whisky Shelf 3

By the end of June the 'whisky shelf' was looking well stocked
(and sadly in alphabetical order !)

Whisky Discovery #15

Bunnahabhain 13 Year Old 1997

Heavily Peated Cask Strength Collection (54.60% abv Signatory 70cl,)

Islay Single Malt Whisky

Circa £60

My first cask strength !

Another Birthday treat, this time from daughter Kat.

Distilled at the Bunnahabhain (pronounced BOO-na-HAven )on the 11th December 1997 and aged in two hogsheads (numbers 5501 and 5550 ) for 13 years before bottling on the 13th December 2010. 

A release of 588 bottles of cask strength, heavily peated Bunnahabhain. Mine is No. 248

Deriving from the Gaelic for ‘mouth of the river’, Bunnahabhain was founded in 1881 by William Robertson and brothers James and William Greenless. A very smooth, easy-drinking Islay malt. In relative solitude, Bunnahabhain is the Northern-most Islay distillery. It sits in a large bay to the North East of the isle, drawing its water from the Margadale Spring.

Whisky Discovery #14

Glenfiddich 18 Year Old (40% abv, OB, Bottled +/- 2011 70cl)

Speyside Single Malt Whisky

Circa £40

June's second bottle

A Birthday treat from son, Carl. Patiently matured in the Oloroso sherry and bourbon casks, before being married in small batches to create an extraordinarily smooth, rich and mellow single malt.

Married for at least three months in small, individually numbered batches in wooden tuns, the Glenfiddich 18 Year Old has a unique depth and complexity that has been acclaimed in the industry.

Nose: Remarkably rich aroma with ripe orchard fruit, baked apple and a robust oakiness

Taste: Richly delivers luxurious dried fruit, candy peel and dates overlaid with elegant cinnamon notes

Whisky Discovery #13

Lagavulin 16 yo(43%, OB, Bottled +/- 2011 70cl)

Islay Single Malt Whisky

Circa £40 –£45

June's 1st bottle

I had heard plenty about this malt from numerous web sites as well as personal recommendations so was really looking forward to this. First tasted in the Loch Fyne restaurant in Woburn on my 48^thbirthday.On the way home from lunch, popped into Costco and got my own bottle for my birthday present.

This Islay malt is one of my favourite drams and will always feature on my wish list.

Massive, peat-smoke typical of southern Islay, yet with a dry finesse that makes up a classy package.

Apparently the teetotal Johnny Depp sometimes orders a dram of this and just sniffs it (it’s that good). A worthy classic.

My Whisky Shelf 2

This was the state of my collection by early June.  Six months into my journey and all bottles were open.