One of the most popular releases from The Balvenie. We all love their age statements & here is a marriage with higher strength. We all win!
The seventh batch of Balvenie's Tun 1509 release. This whisky has been sourced from 21 casks (10 Sherry butts, 4 barrels and 7 hogsheads), hand selected by David Stewart and then vatted together in a marrying tun for 3 months. The result is a elegant richer Balvenie, bottled at a higher strength of 52.4%
Nose : Rich and deep, lots of exotic and elegant oak notes, followed by sweeter aromas of dried fruits raisins and dates, then a spicy outburst of ground ginger and some melted brown sugar.
Palate : Rich and lush and slightly tangy with candied orange peel, lots of oak vanilla some golden syrup, layers of honeycomb, toasted hazelnuts with some spicy ginger and nutmeg to finish.
Finish : Sweet and malty with oak vanilla and spices.
Its floor maltings have been retained and although this only makes up a small percentage (up to 15%) of the total mash, it is believed that it helps contribute character to the new make – the small amount of peat which is burned might help. Given that Balvenie has only opened to visitors in recent times, it certainly wasn’t kept for cosmetic or touristic reasons.
It’s a large distillery with nine, fat, short-necked stills producing a new make character which is notably sweet and honeyed – completely different to both Glenfiddich and Kininvie. Interestingly, when William Grant built its Ailsa Bay malt distillery in Girvan, the still shape replicated that of Balvenie, but the new make is different again.
This was one of the first distilleries to introduce a ‘finished’ single malt with the launch in 1993 of Double Wood, which was first aged in ex-Bourbon casks before being given a short period of secondary maturation (aka finishing) in ex-Sherry.
This utilisation of different wood types runs through the Balvenie range with a new 17-year-old Double Wood recently joining Caribbean Cask (ex-rum) 14 year old, and the 21-year-old Port Wood as part of the core range. As well as single barrel releases and older age variants up to 50 years in the range, a cult small batch, Tun 1401, has also recently appeared, followed by Tun 1509.
Balvenie was built on a 12 acre site adjacent to Glenfiddich in 1892/3. Originally known as Glen Gordon it took the name of the huge (ruined) castle which was located next door. The ‘new’ castle, already derelict in 1893, was turned into maltings.
The distillery provided fillings, primarily for the Grant’s Standfast blend, until 1973 when the first official bottling was made. Its continued requirements as a contributor to blends initially restricted its growth as a stand-alone brand (although increasing its cult status). This was eased slightly with the opening of Kininvie in 1990, but it was only with the building of Ailsa Bay that greater stocks were finally made available. It is now one of the fastest-growing single malt brands in the world.
