Origin: Speyside (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 48%ABV
Ageing casks: Ex-Bourbon and Ex-Sherry Oloroso
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: William Grant & Sons
Average price: € 850.00
Official website: www.thebalvenie.com
Vote: 88/100
Part of the Rare Marriages series, to which the 30yo and 40yo also belong, this is a bottling that combines some of the “rarest casks” in the distillery’s extensive warehouses, chosen by David C. Stewart, former Malt Master of The Balvenie.
Released in 2021 with a second version the following year, I unfortunately have no way of knowing to which of the two today’s tasting belongs.
Tasting notes
Opening a jar of citrus honey produces the same olfactory effect, intense, soft and rough at the same time, with a generous sprinkling of nutmeg on very ripe fruit (apricot, mango, red apple), orange declined in marmalade and candied peel, berry tart, custard. Cinnamon-baked apples, butter biscuits and toffee also emerge at length. Slight acidulous and lactic vein in the background. Elegant and full-bodied.
In the mouth the honey moves to the rear to make way for fruit, pungent and ripe, weaving a texture of red fruits (blueberries, currants, gooseberries), peach, apricot, baked apple, coconut, pink grapefruit and candied orange. Floral notes hover at the top of the palate, along with a balsamic afflatus with mentholated flickers, with the pastry side evident along the length, expressed in a cream tartlet with kiwi and pineapple. Spices (ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon), nuts (almonds, macadamia nuts) and a hint of cocoa complete the picture, varied and less complacent than the nose.
The finish is quite long and dry with floral notes on spices, red fruits, baked apple, nuts.
The sherry casks have marked this dram considerably, especially on the palate, undermining all the elegance of the nose, which is somewhat lost in the drinking. Richness and complexity remain, expressing the character of the distillery in an exemplary manner.