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The Balvenie DoubleWood 17
I asked some of my Instagram followers what I should review next and The Balvenie DoubleWood 17 Years was suggested. Just in luck, I had a bottle on hand. As those that have read some of my previous reviews know, I am a big The Balvenie fan so I was more than happy to jump on this suggestion.
Ardbeg Corryvreckan
We are heading back to Islay to take a look at Ardbeg Corryvreckan, one of the two NAS whiskies in Ardbeg’s core line (the other being Uigeadail). We don’t know much about how this one was made, but if we read through the lines on the Ardbeg site we can infer that the Corry was aged in both ex-Bourbon (as the standard 10 year old is) as well as new French Oak barrels. French Oak is said to give more spicy/peppery notes compared to the American Oak (used for Bourbon aging) which is more vanilla forward. We do know that this is the highest proof of the core products, coming in at 57.1% so I expect this to have some extra horsepower and may use some water to open up other flavors as well.
Glen Grant 15 Year Old Batch Strength First Edition
The Glen Grant 15 Year old Batch Strength First Edition has been on my list for a while and I finally got a bottle this past Christmas from my brother and sister-in-law. This will be my first time tasting a Glen Grant and I read the initial review so long ago that I have absolutely no idea what to expect from a flavor profile perspective, so let’s check it out…
Aberfeldy 18 Year Red Wine Cask Finished
The Aberfeldy 18 Year Finished in French Red Wine casks from Pauillac, Bordeaux was named Whisky Advocate’s #10 (of Top 20) in 2020. I purchased it a while back but it has been sitting on my shelf waiting for a good time to open. Why not now?
The Balvenie 30 Year
This next review is the crown jewel of my whisky collection, The Balvenie 30 Year that my wife bought for me for my birthday 8 years ago when we were still dating. She happened to give me this around the time I was hunting for her engagement ring, so to say that she is a master strategist would be an understatement.
SMWS 12.53 “Going Crazy in a Bakery”
I plan on sprinkling in some Scotch Malt Whisky Society reviews over the next few weeks as I have more on the way and I need to make some room on my shelf! For those that aren’t familiar, SMWS is a club (annual fee) that buys casks from distilleries and always bottles them at cask strength. They come up with colorful names and label them under a distillery & cask code so you don’t know who the distillery is, but it’s the worst kept secret in the whisky world and there are plenty of websites that tell you which each one is. Distillery #12, which is BenRiach, is in Speyside and was distilled on Sept. 29, 2009 and put into 1st fill ex-bourbon barrels.
Glen Moray Elgin Classic Port Finish
This is the final review (for now) on my lower price point whisk(e)y reviews. We have explored bourbon, rye and Irish thus far, so now it is time for a single malt Scotch. In an attempt to keep it an apples-to-apples comparison, I selected another $30 bottle to see how a single malt matches up at that price point.
Lagavulin 16 Year Old
Hailing from Islay, Lagavulin is one of the more recognizable peated scotch brands out in the market. What I like most about peated single malts is how distinctly different each flavor profile is within the peat category. I wrote about this a bit in my Talisker Distillers Edition review, and the Lagavulin 16 is no different. For those of you that are fans of American sitcoms, the Lagavulin 16 was the go-to scotch for Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation. The character was so tightly tied to this bottle that Lagavulin released an 11 year old version named after the actor, Nick Offerman, who plays Ron in the show. I’m going to have to grab one of those next….
The Balvenie “The Sweet Toast of American Oak” Aged 12 Years
Full disclosure, I am a big The Balvenie fan with the first nice single malt I ever purchased being the old Single Barrel 15 Year (the one aged in traditional casks, not the current sherried version). For this review, we will be tasting The Sweet Toast of American Oak Aged 12 Years, which was the first release in the new Balvenie Stories Collection. This expression takes Balvenie juice aged in ex-bourbon barrels and then puts it in Kentucky virgin oak barrels that were deeply toasted at Balvenie’s cooperage. Given the profile, I expected this to be somewhat similar to the 12 year old Single Barrel First Fill staple that is part of the core Balvenie line.
Glenmorangie “A Tale of Winter”
Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter is the 2nd release of their “A Tale of…” Limited Edition releases. I’m doing this backwards by reviewing this one first, but it has been subarctic temperatures in the Northeast and what better time to crack a bottle named after Winter than when you are shivering…
Talisker The Distillers Edition
Talisker’s The Distillers Edition finished in Amoroso casks from the Isle of Skye is another great entry-level peated scotch (relax peatheads, we will get to some heavier peated scotch as we go). People new to the peat category tend to think that peated scotch is all the same, however, even within the land of peatiness there are a number of different flavors such as medicinal, mossy, smoky, sulphuric, briny, etc. Talisker falls within the briny peat category and this particular release has the benefit of being finished in Amoroso sherry casks, adding another dimension to the picture.
Aberlour 16 Year Old
Aberlour is another distillery in the Speyside region. The Aberlour 16 Double Cask Matured is a single malt expression made from distillate that was aged for at least 16 years in ex-Bourbon casks and at least 16 years in Sherry butts. The barrels selected for this bottling are then married together. The brand has refreshed the packaging and my bottle might be the old label (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm mistaken)
BenRiach “The Smokey Twelve”
This was my first BenRiach...the Smoky Twelve is a Speyside single malt made from both peated and unpeated malted barley and matured for a minimum of 12 years in Bourbon, Sherry and Marsala wine casks