The Balvenie French Oak 16 Finished in Pineau Casks
The Balvenie French Oak 16 Finished in Pineau Casks
Those that have followed my reviews for a while know that I am a big fan of The Balvenie. When I first really got into whisky – and by really, I mean beyond just drinking bourbon for fun and starting to learn more about how it was made, why it tastes the way it does, etc.– I wanted to buy a “nice” bottle of scotch. To help with my decision-making process, I bought a review book by Michael Jackson (RIP) and thumbed through it reading his reviews, trying to decide which “nice” bottle of scotch to purchase. After pouring through the book (“Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch – Fully Revised 6th Edition” for those that are curious) over a few days, I came across The Balvenie section and, for whatever reason, glommed onto the review of the Single Barrel 15 Year Old release. This was a different release from the current Single Barrel 15 Year Old, and I found it for $90 at a store near my then-workplace. At the time, $90 was a BIG amount of money to spend on a single bottle, easily 3x-4x my usually spend on whatever $20-$30 bottle of bourbon I was drinking at the time (probably Bulleit). I fell in love with The Balvenie at the first sip and that kicked-off what would become my journey into scotch, and more specifically, The Balvenie collection.
Ok, enough memory lane, let’s get into the weeds about this new release, The Balvenie French Oak 16 Year Old Finished in Pineau Casks. First, what the hell is Pineau? I’m not entirely ignorant of wine, but if whisky is the size of the solar system, then wine is the size of the galaxy. The wine category is extremely wide, from countries, to regions within countries, to grape varieties, etc.…but I would also argue that it is as deep as it is wide, with centuries of a head start on whisky – from super-local vineyards within each of the expansive regions to the large conglomerates. Whisky in the U.S. (which is whiskey) was decimated by Prohibition and it took almost 100 years for small producers to get back on the map. At first, the big U.S. producers ridiculed a lot of the “craft spirits” producers and their new methods and experimentation, but that’s to be expected since it was these same entities that made the local distiller a thing of yesteryear once Prohibition ended. Now, these same naysayers are riding the tailcoats of the craft spirits movement and expanding their own offerings, trying new methods and experimenting to make a more unique, coveted product.
Unlike their whisky cousins in the U.S., The Balvenie is a bit different. David Stewart, the “Malt Master” at The Balvenie, has always been one to experiment and was a pioneer 40 years ago in the barrel finishing. If you haven’t read them, check out my reviews on both the DoubleWood 12 and the DoubleWood 17. Always pushing the envelope, Stewart seems to constantly search out new ways to play with his core spirit. In this case, according to the website, it was The Balvenie USA brand ambassador, Lorne Cousin, who suggested to Stewart that he ought to explore Pineau casks after spending some time in the area for a family vacation. First off, this vacation sounds wildly different than my family vacations which usually end up in tears, usually my 6 and 4 year olds’, but also sometimes my own and my wife’s. I digress…so apparently Mr. Stewart took his advice and here we are with a new release to The Balvenie’s cask finishing series.
Pineau, officially known as Pineau des Charentes, is an aperitif hailing from western France, just slightly inland from the Bay of Biscay and northeast of the famous wine region, Bordeaux (See Map). The Pineau is a fortified wine that is made by adding Cognac eau de vie, which is a variety of brandy, in this case distilled wine, made in the Cognac region, which is (surprise surprise) a commune in the Charente department of southwestern France, to fresh unfermented grape juice. This combination is then aged in French Oak barrels. I recently did a review on a Maker’s Mark Private Selection which takes French Oak staves and adds them to Maker’s bourbon barrels as a finishing tool (check it out here). I, for one, enjoy when American whiskey is aged and/or finished in French Oak. While I love the vanilla sweet, goodness of American Oak, French Oak provides some velvety smooth mouthfeel and some nice spice to the mix. Since I was tasting this bottle, I found a bottle of Pineau des Charentes to sample, but more on that later.
The legend (according to multiple sources online – here and here) is that this little sipper was created by accident. You must go back to 1589, according to legend – at a time when the Gregorian calendar was first implemented, Sir Francis Drake circumnavigates the Globe and is knighted by Queen Elizabeth Numero Uno, Mary Queen of Scots was executed, and the English defeated the Spanish Armada (or weather did, you decide) – and Dartagnan Tremblay (ok, I made up that name) accidently puts grape must (freshly crushed grapes; juice, skin and all) into barrels of cognac. Whooops! Ever the frugal man, Dartagnan (again, sorry, it’s just easier with a real name) tucked this mistake away in his cellar only to revisit it again years later when he needed the barrel for his main wine making. Lo and behold, the shit was good and a new libation was born. There’s clearly a huge level of bullshit to this story. If there was a Dartagnan, he was likely experimenting and was afraid to tell his wife he was wasting a perfectly good oak barrel. Most likely there wasn’t a Dartagnan (I can say with great certainly there wasn’t, as I made up his name—but not the legend), but Pineau des Charentes got status of Appellation d’Origine (AO) fortified wine in 1935, so whoever was pushing it then likely made up the story to give it some history…Hm…sounds familiar to many of us whisky drinkers here in the U.S….you’d think that 90% of our forebearers had some sort of distillery business 4 generations ago by the level of marketing lore that is put out these days about every new whisky on the market. And on that note, let’s get to the tasting.
Age….Whisky aged at a minimum 16 years in American Oak casks (ex-bourbon casks) and then finished for “several months” in Pineau Casks (more on this later)
ABV…. 47.6% (off to a good start, I hate when they make the aged scotches at 43%...)
Price….$220 (I have seen the price range in stores from $200 to $250. I could have purchased it for $200, but I got a heads up text from a store I frequent and I appreciated their proactiveness so what the hell is $20 when you have great service!)
How it smells…. Very fruity on the nose with apples, apricots, grape juice, and overall sweet in a non-specific way. Has a bit of funk on the nose, grassy and young, which is surprising given the 16-year age statement and the extra time on the finish. I have never smelled this “funk” with a Balvenie before, reminds me of the Glenfarclas 105 or the SMWS Oven-Ready Moomin – at least from a smell perspective. I assume this is from the Pineau finish, but I won’t be tasting a bottle of that fortified wine until after I have finished this tasting.
How it tastes….fruity to kick it off, honeyed apples and figs followed by a bit of lemon citrus and again, more sweetness. The end is more candied ginger with a bit of peppery spice with a sweet and short finish, yet when you mull on the sip for a while you get a hint of that chocolate maltiness that I pick up in other The Balvenie releases….with a dab of water, more plum fruit at the start and spicier mid-palate with that ginger flavor moving up in the order. The end gets a bit of that roasted malt, kind of like a brown ale or a Scottish ale with the finish reverting to honeyed sweetness.
Final thoughts….We’ll start off with the low hanging fruit. The packaging is great, complete with the usual The Balvenie sophisticated classical look but with some French pizzazz – purplish and gold foil to the lettering. The Balvenie doesn’t release a lot of new stuff – at least not in the U.S., although seeing the Instagram pictures of some of the folks that I follow, it does seem that the rest of the world and Travel Retail get a lot of the newer, fun stuff. Given this, I salivated at this purchase, and to be quite honest, I wasn’t sensitive to price and was likely to buy it at $150 or $250. At this price rage, the value argument is a bit of a philosophical debate, there is no right answer, and it all depends on your own opinion and preferences. Given the tone of my preamble, I suspect many of you will expect me to say that I didn’t enjoy this sip, but that’s not the case. I enjoyed it quite a bit, BUT I found that it was quite a bit different from the typical releases from The Balvenie – so for many of you that were expecting another Caribbean Cask, where you get one fun new flavor added to the traditional The Balvenie spirit, you might be disappointed. With a dab of water (cheers to The Balvenie for releasing it at 47%+), it does open up a bit, providing more of those chocolate malty flavors on the finish which I generally equate with The Balvenie, but at full blast, these flavors were barely noticeable, occasionally poking their head out and disappearing quickly. That said, it is a very smooth and enjoyable sip. Very light throughout, making it a nice Summer Scotch. While sweetness and spicy ginger were the stalwart flavors overall, I did find that I was getting them separately on different sips. Kind of like a one-two punch with the first sip being sweet and the next spicy and the third back to sweet again, which was a fun little ride.
The sweetness was more fruit-forward and honey-based, with plums and apple cider leading the charge. I didn’t get that vanilla sweetness which usually accompanies The Balvenie oak and maltiness. But the candied ginger spice was a nice new addition. Overall, this was a bright and sweet sipper. There was some roasted malt poking its head out, particularly after putting in a dab of water. However, this wasn’t a chocolate malt nor a bready malt, just a bit roasted.
For fun, I bought a bottle of Pineau des Charentes – made by Braastad for those that are interested – to see what the actual aperitif tastes like and extrapolate how that affected the core Balvenie spirit. There’s not a lot of these by me, so this bottle was all I could find reasonably close to me (I actually used DoorDash to deliver it from a Total Wine about 20 miles away), but I tried to find a bottle of the “red Pineau des Charentes” as I read an article and a spokesperson for The Balvenie mentioned that was the type of Pineau that they used (apparently there’s red and white versions). This bottle from Brasstad has more of a rosé blush color to it, but online it said that it was made from Cabernet Franc. According to the label, this bottle was made from freshly squeezed grape must and aged for at least 18 months in oak barrels. Upon the first sip, you can see how The Balvenie was influenced and, ultimately, transformed into the current bottling. The nose is super fruity and sweet, and the taste is full of candied applies and plums with the overall profile being very light and crushable.
To further complicate things, I decided to taste this (for a third time) alongside The Balvenie DoubleWood 17 and a bottle of the 15 Year old Single Barrel Sherry Cask, figuring that the approximate age statements and the different type of aging styles would provide enough of a variety to see how this one fared against two that have been in the core lineup for a while. From a color perspective, it's no surprise that the 15 (with its Sherry cask aging) was more reddish compared to the 16 (Pineau), which was paler and more yellow. The 17 (Sherry and American oak bourbon cask aged) sat in the middle of the two hues. On the nose and taste, there was quite a bit of difference as well. The 15 smelled of dark berries with the taste more heavily on the fruity and honey side. The 17 smelled mustier with more earthy aromas but the taste was richer, with sweet honey and vanilla, but also that chocolate maltiness. The 16 was a bit punchier on the nose, smelling younger with grassy and apple notes and tasting much lighter than the other two with only flashes of the traditional Balvenie taste profile.
I struggle with how to rate this. On the one hand, I like the sip, and having tasted the Brasstad’s Pineau now, it’s like I got a glimpse of the origin story for this bottling. That said, $200-$250 is pricy, and while I am glad that I experienced the sip I am unlikely to spend that again for another bottle, not when I can spend much less to grab another bottle of the 15 Year Sherry Cask Single Barrel or the 17 Year DoubleWood, and if I want a really sweet The Balvenie, the 14 Year Caribbean Cask is always enjoyable (and 34% of the cost of this bottle). I’m going to say 3x 🥃 as I am enjoying the bottle and I don’t begrudge the price, but I’m not going to buy another.
The website says that this is the “first of The Balvenie finishes to explore French Oak”. Clearly the literal meaning is as stated, this is the first time they have finished with French Oak with the more typical sherry and port finishes being the mainstay of their previous finished releases. It can be inferred, that the Madeira, Sherry – whether Pedro Ximenez or Oloroso Sherry casks—or Port casks which have been used in The Balvenie releases for a while, are all aged in something other than French Oak, mainly American Oak but also other hardwoods or other regional subspecies of European Oak. BUT is this French Oak aging a one-and-done for The Balvenie? Or, will they further expand their experimentation into French Oak finishes or agings? I, for one, hope so.
Nice Sipper Ratings Reminder…
All ratings are done on a scale between 1x 🥃 and 5x 🥃 according to the following criteria
1x 🥃 = I don't like this at all and/or not worth the cost by a mile.
2x 🥃🥃 = This is "meh" and/or slightly overpriced.
3x 🥃🥃🥃 = This is good stuff and/or the price is right.
4x 🥃🥃🥃🥃 = This is wonderful and I'm always keeping it in stock especially at this price.
5x 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃 = This is amazing and/or this is way underpriced for the quality of the experience.
