THE BALVENIE 12YO SINGLE BARREL
47.8%abv
First fill ex american bourboncask
On each bottle you can read an unique bottle and cask number . Mine is bottle n°.96. cask n°.3118.
The Balvenie, founded by the familly William Grant & Sons (Glenfiddich and kinninvie) in 1893 is located in Dufftown/Speyside/Scotland. The distillery was created near the beautiful and old Balvenie castle. A part of the grain is malted on its own traditional maltfoors that are amongst the lasts still active in Scotland.The spirit is then distillate in round shape pot still called ‘balvenie balls’. The distillery manager David Stewart has improved the distillery range with various kind of maturations (doublewood, portwood, rumcasks, peatedcasks…), and in 2017 was born the Peat Week, a whisky made from 100%peated malt. BUT today i will tell you more about the 12yo Single Barrel…
NOSE : Fruity and sour notes of Haribo apple candy, pear, lemon and fresh pineapple. Then fresh aromas of vanilla, flowers/grass, honey, almonds, swedish oatmeal cookies and honeyed sesame biscuits …
PALATE : Sweet, intense and complex with some orchard fruits notes… In fact the sweet side is now counterbalanced by some interesting bitterness/ roughness at this level of the tasting. It is first of all spicy, grassy and medium woody notes that I distinguish then, a sweet, oily and resinous wave unfolds delicately. Then, i really feel like I’m enjoying in the morning a pleasant bowl of various cereal flakes with liquide honey !
FINISH : A beautiful length unfolds on a nice woody and fragrant fruity sweetness. Notes of maple syrup, vanilla cream, biscuits and pine sap leaves a pleasant souvenirs on my taste buds…
COMMENTS : A real treat that offers imho a nice, fresh and gourmand summery profile. In this scotch whisky the flavours are for me well defined with such a great precision… If you know Balvenie but never try this release you really should give it a go !