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 (here or here) know, I am a big The Balvenie fan so I was more than happy to jump on this suggestion.

For those that aren’t as familiar, The Balvenie is a Speyside distillery owned by William Grant and Sons (along with its sister distillery, Glenfiddich) and has had David Stewart as the Master Distiller for nearly 50 years.  There’s a lot that can be written about David Stewart, but the most important thing as it relates to this bottle is that he was an early pioneer in cask finishing single malt scotch.  The Balvenie launched its DoubleWood 12, the younger sibling to this 17 year old version, in 1993 and the rest is history.

The DoubleWood series is first aged in ex-Bourbon casks, what they refer to on the bottle as “Whisky Oak” but in reality, it’s ex-Bourbon barrels.  The whisky is then transferred to a secondary aging in ex-Sherry casks made with European oak.  The Balvenie website gives some details on the DoubleWood 12, stating that it is aged for the full 12 years in the ex-Bourbon barrels and then transferred to Spanish ex-Oloroso sherry casks for an additional 9 months.  Finally, the whisky is “married” together in large oak vessels called “tuns” for 3-4 months to fully integrate the various casks used in the batch.  They are less specific on the website regarding the 17, but if this is how they treat the 12 year old version, then I think it is safe to assume that the 17 year version undergoes a similar aging process, adjusted up for the extra 5 years.

I happen to have a bottle of the DoubleWood 12 as well as one of their “Tun” releases, so I will have to get to those in later reviews as well.

ABV: 43%

How it smells…peach and apricots (unpeeled), raspberries, cocoa, a bit earthy and musty, like a vineyard’s cask rooms.

How it tastes…starts off sweet like honey and then turns to vanilla and oak flavors, ending with some dried fruit notes and a nice long finish that is sweet milk chocolate with a very light pepper spice lingering on your tongue.

Price….I typically see this for $165 by me, but I actually picked this up for a steal at $120 as the corner store by me had it severely mispriced (they bumped it up to $145 after I purchased this one).  For rating purposes, I’ll be fair and rate at $165.

Rating...🥃🥃🥃🥃

Final thoughts….10 years later and I still really enjoy this bottle.  If you like the balance of ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks, then this is a staple.  Friends of mine who favor the sherry bombs more tend to have mixed feelings about some of The Balvenie’s line up, but I am not one of those.  I find this to be fantastic.  Not a bad note throughout the sip.  My ONLY very tiny gripe/note for improvement is that I would love to see what this tastes like at 46% or 48% ABV.  Aged scotch (>12 years) at 40% is an abomination.   Hard stop.  But even at 43% I feel like the flavors are a bit too muted.  I don’t need cask strength everything (like a lot of folks these days), but a bit more oomph for a 17 year old would be much appreciated.  Clearly scotch producers aren’t afraid of raising prices so if they need to offset the decreased quantities for an increased price point, so be it.  I had this same gripe with the Aberlour 16 I reviewed a bit back.  For those that don’t want to click on that link, the Aberlour 16 is a $90 bottle or so that is bottled at 40% ABV.  It was a fine little sipper, but I wouldn’t buy it again, it’s just way too weak and muted at 40%.  Anyways, back to The Balvenie.

I would be a hypocrite to rate this below a 4x 🥃 as I have kept a bottle of this in stock at whatever price it has been at for nearly 10 years…and that is essentially the definition I set for a 4x 🥃 rating.  That said, I do not always dip into it because the price has increased so much over the years, so I wouldn’t begrudge anyone for wanting to see it at 3x 🥃.