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Release Notes
Launched by Balvenie in September 2012, the 17 year old DoubleWood is the new older brother of the classic, beloved 12 year old we have enjoyed at the bar many times over.
Yours Truly
To craft The Balvenie DoubleWood 17 year old single malt whisky Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE returned to one of his most celebrated achievements – consecutive maturation in two different types of cask, a process often referred to as ‘cask finishing’.
This technique is at the heart of The Balvenie DoubleWood – it sees the whisky matured first in American oak barrels, which impart soft sweet vanilla notes, before being transferred to European oak sherry casks, where the second cask ageing adds rich spicy flavours and a depth and fullness of flavour.
The DoubleWood 17 year old is an elder sibling to DoubleWood 12 year old and shares its honeyed, spicy characteristics, but it is distinctly different, with deeper vanilla notes, hints of green apple, creamy toffee and a striking richness and complexity.
This technique is at the heart of The Balvenie DoubleWood – it sees the whisky matured first in American oak barrels, which impart soft sweet vanilla notes, before being transferred to European oak sherry casks, where the second cask ageing adds rich spicy flavours and a depth and fullness of flavour.
The DoubleWood 17 year old is an elder sibling to DoubleWood 12 year old and shares its honeyed, spicy characteristics, but it is distinctly different, with deeper vanilla notes, hints of green apple, creamy toffee and a striking richness and complexity.
Balvenie
3rd Party Tasting Notes
Nose: Juicy black cherry, honey lozenges, apple cider, light heathery florals, and a very faint raw green banana. A pleasure to nose, with layers of fruit and light, airy malt. Elegant and polished, with no blemishes whatsoever. A rest in the glass releases more fresh banana and an undercurrent of oatmeal with brown sugar. This is banana I can get behind!
Palate: Medium-bodied. Fruit on the entry, with tart apples and cherries again. Evolves into creamy grain and graham crackers. So easy-drinking.
Finish: A little on the short side, but very nice honey-sweet notes and some lingering vanilla oakiness. Leaves you with an impression of quality and finesse.
With Water: Water picks up the nose tickle, but doesn’t yield much else. No need for water with this one.
Overall: Tastes to me like a cross between the usual 12 year-old DoubleWood and the 15 single-barrel. While the extra age is apparent, I would have said it was the same age as the 15-year in a blind tasting. That said, the marriage of elegant light bourbon-aged Balvenie malt with a cavalcade of fresh sweet fruit from the brief dip in sherry barrels is spot-on, like the 12 DoubleWood with a little more of everything that makes it great, a bit more refined, and less bitter oak on the finish. A pleasure, but at this price point – definitely a splurge.
Palate: Medium-bodied. Fruit on the entry, with tart apples and cherries again. Evolves into creamy grain and graham crackers. So easy-drinking.
Finish: A little on the short side, but very nice honey-sweet notes and some lingering vanilla oakiness. Leaves you with an impression of quality and finesse.
With Water: Water picks up the nose tickle, but doesn’t yield much else. No need for water with this one.
Overall: Tastes to me like a cross between the usual 12 year-old DoubleWood and the 15 single-barrel. While the extra age is apparent, I would have said it was the same age as the 15-year in a blind tasting. That said, the marriage of elegant light bourbon-aged Balvenie malt with a cavalcade of fresh sweet fruit from the brief dip in sherry barrels is spot-on, like the 12 DoubleWood with a little more of everything that makes it great, a bit more refined, and less bitter oak on the finish. A pleasure, but at this price point – definitely a splurge.
ScotchNoob.com
Beautiful honey on the nose transforms into nougat on the tongue. The sherry influence is unmistakeable here, along with touches of heather and hints of the whisky’s barley origins. The finish: apple pie, with a focus on the caramel. The body is just perfect, oily but not mouth-coating.
It’s tough to say but this might be my favorite regular expression of Balvenie to date.
It’s tough to say but this might be my favorite regular expression of Balvenie to date.
DrinkHacker.com
Nose: Elegant and complex oak, vanilla, honeyed sweetness and a hint of green apple.
Taste: Sweet with dried fruits, sherbet spice, toasted almonds and cinnamon, layered with a richness of creamy toffee notes and traces of oak and deep vanilla.
Finish: Vanilla oak, honey and spicy sweetness.
Taste: Sweet with dried fruits, sherbet spice, toasted almonds and cinnamon, layered with a richness of creamy toffee notes and traces of oak and deep vanilla.
Finish: Vanilla oak, honey and spicy sweetness.
Balvenie
The Distillery: Balvenie
| Established: 1892 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Dufftown, Keith, Banffshire, AB55 4DH, Scotland, UK |
| → website |
2009 - It seems that rum finishes have grown increasingly popular with the people behind Balvenie; after releasing a 14yo in 2005 and a 17yo in 2008 they bottled two different 14yo"s in 2009; a "Cuban Selection" for France and a "Golden Cask" version for the duty free market.
The Balvenie distillery in Dufftown was built in 1892 by W. & J. Grant, owners of the Glenfiddich distillery nearby. More than a century later they are still "sister stills", owned by the very same company that originally built them; William Grant & Sons.
And after having sampled it I can say that this 6yo old vatted malt whisky can"t hold a candle to the older, official bottlings of Balvenie, or to Glenfiddich OB"s for that matter. In fact, I haven"t tried a bad Balvenie yet and its sister distillery Glenfiddich seems on the way up as well. An old "Over 8yo" expression bottled in the 1960"s was much better than any Glenfiddich from the 1990"s (except the 15yo Cask Strength perhaps), but the third millennium looks promising...
In the New Millenium:
As you can see at the left, the official bottlings are beautifully designed. Well, actually, official bottlings are all you"re likely to find; the "brand" is jealously protected and just like Glenfiddich, independent bottlings are very rare. That being said, I"ve tried an excellent 31yo Glenfiddich from Cadenhead"s and the maniacs found some independently owned casks of Balvenie as well. but these are exceptions. Ordinarily, every single cask of Balvenie or Glenfiddich that is sold to brokers or blenders is "polluted" with a small quantity of the other malt, making it a vatted malt. That means that it"s illegal to sell this malt whisky ("Wardhead" is the name for Glenfiddich with a dash of Balvenie while "Burnside" is Balvenie with a little Glenfiddich) as a single malt whisky.
I"ve actually tried one of these vatted malts - although I"m not sure which one. The "Burn of Speyside" 6yo 1996 vatted malt is sold in Holland by Van Wees. They"ve added a charming little story about a sunken ship (a la Whisky Galore) but research by Robin Brilleman has shown that it was just a "fender bender". Balvenie logo
When the distillery was built in 1892 it was outfitted with second hand still from Lagavulin and Glen Albyn. This might seem a bit odd at first, but the use of second hand stills from other distilleries that were demolished or refurbished is actually not that uncommon. These days Balvenie has no less than eight stills (4 wash stills and 4 spirit stills); two of them were added in 1965 and one in 1971.
The official Balvenie core range includes the standard 10 years old "Founders Reserve", the 12yo "DoubleWood", the 15yo "Single Barrel" (shown in the picture at the left) and the 21yo "Port Wood". Actually, that"s just the "core" core range - the 25yo "Single Barrel" is a fairly regular release and bottlings like the 1989 and 1991 "Port Wood" and the 17yo "Islay Cask" were available for a longer period of time as well. (See the Balvenie website for the details of their current range.) Balvenie also provides a fine example of the irrelevance of the "terroir" theories on Scotch whisky in modern times. Balvenie and Glenfiddich are located next to each other and use the same water source. Nevertheless, the whiskies are quite different from each other...
2001 - The Balvenie Islay Cask is launched. This whisky has been aged in bourbon casks for 17 years before it"s finished in an "Islay cask". That"s supposedly a cask that has previously contained a malt whisky from Islay. So, I guess you could call this a whisky with a whisky finish...
2005 - The Balvenie 14yo Rum Wood Finish is released; another double matured whisky in a growing list of finished whiskies released by Balvenie. Arguably their Balvenie DoubleWood has always remained their most popular "finish".
Trivia:
- A 50yo Balvenie from 1952 was released in 2002; after half a century cask #191 still produced 83 bottles. The recommended retail price of these bottles was a whopping 6,000 GBP.
- Balvenie still has its own floor maltings, but they can only produce a fraction (circa 15%) of all the malted barley that Balvenie needs to keep production going.
- Balvenie is one of almost two dozen malt whisky distilleries that were founded during the "whisky boom" of the late 19th century and which have managed to survive until this day. The other survivors include Aberfeldy, Ardmore, Aultmore, Benriach, Benromach, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Craigellachie, Dalwhinnie, Dufftown, Glendullan, Glenfiddich, Glen Moray, Glenrothes, Glentauchers, Knockandu, Knockdhu, Longmorn, Tamdhu and Tomatin.
from Malt Madness
The Owner: William Grant & Sons
| Established: 1886 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Phoenix Crescent Strathclyde Business Park, Bellshill, Lanarkshire, ML4 3AN, UK |
| → website |
William Grant & Sons Ltd. is an independent, family-owned Scottish company which distills Scotch whisky and other selected categories of spirits. It was founded in 1886 by William Grant, and is now run by the descendants of the founder. It is the largest of the handful of Scotch whisky distillers remaining in family ownership. "William Grant & Sons" is often abbreviated to "W. Grant & Sons" or just "Grant"s", after their leading blended whisky of the same name.
William Grant & Sons pioneered single malt Scotch whisky as until Glenfiddich, only blended brands were common In 1997 the Grant entered into a joint venture with the Robertson family (The Edrington Group) creating a new company, Highland Distillers.
The company"s leading single malt Scotch brand is Glenfiddich, the best-selling brand in the worldwide single malt Scotch market (700,000 cases/year and 17.37% market share). This is more than the sales of the next two single malts combined. Their leading blended Scotch brand is Grant"s, the 4th best-selling brand in the worldwide blended Scotch market and the Scotch market as a whole (4 million cases/year). Grant"s is also the 4th best-selling brand in the domestic United Kingdom Scotch market (420,000 cases/year and 14.6% market share).
William Grant was born in Dufftown in 1839. The young Grant worked at Mortlach Distillery and dreamed of one day running his own distillery. He worked hard and saved and in 1886 Grant and his 9 children laid the first stone of the Glenfiddich Distillery. It was Christmas day 1887 when the first spirit ran from the stills.
In 1892 William Grant & Sons bought a second neighbouring Distillery called Balvenie. In 1898 the two distilleries started blending their whiskies and Grant"s Whisky was "born".
The company is the 3rd largest producer of Scotch whisky (10.4% market share) after Diageo (34.4%), and Pernod Ricard. The company"s central headquarters are in Strathclyde Business Park, North Lanarkshire. Sales and marketing headquarters are in Richmond, London. The company is a member of the Scotch Whisky Association.
The master blender of Grant"s is David Stewart, who has been in his post for 47 years, the longest serving master blender with one distiller in the industry.
Core brands include: Glenfiddich, Grant"s, Balvenie, Hendrick"s Gun, Sailor Jerry Rum. Other brands include: Reyka Iclandic Vodka, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Old Vatted Demerara Rum, Wood"s 100 Old Navy Rum, Vat 19 Rum, Gibson"s Finest, Clan MacGregor Blended Whisky, Monkey Shoulder Triple Malt Whisky, Taboo, Milagro Tequila, Solerno. The company also produces a number of rare whiskies such as Girvan First Batch (from 1964 casks) and Ladyburn (silent distillery closed in 1975) as well private vintage bottlings. Via Highland Distillers the company has a stake in the following brands: The Famous Grouse, The Macallan, Highland Park, Black Bottle and Gloag"s Dry Gin. The company has also co-developed Virgin Vodka with Richard Branson"s Virgin Group
The company owns several distilleries including Glenfiddich, Balvenie, Girvan Grain Distillery, Convalmore (only the bonded warehouse), Kininvie and Ailsa Bay Distillery.
Trivia:
- allegedly the first company to market Scotch whisky abroad (this claim is very contentious - there are several, particularly Glen Grant and Glenmorangie, which would dispute it)
- revolutionized bottle design in the 1950s, creating a triangular bottle
- was the first to open up its distillery to visitors
- introduced the solera concept to Glenfiddich to create Glenfiddich Solera Reserve
from Wikipedia