Balvenie Peated Cask 17 Year Old

I'm pretty sure I snagged the last (or at least penultimate) bottle of this whisky in Ontario. More on that later. This review is comprised of notes taken over the course of the life of this whisky, which was just over a year.

Nose: light, almost imperceptible peat; sugars, a slight nuttiness, mild citrus, and vanilla.

Palate: smooth, oily arrival; diaphanous pillowy peat riding a soft wave of sugars, followed by oak tannins and spice and then a mild nuttiness and citrus.

Finish: drying; the vey light peat re-emerges along with some sugars, all of which dissolve into a long, lightly tannic and slightly bitter finish.

An overall great whisky. Had I known how much I would have enjoyed this dram I may have been persuaded to purchase another bottle despite the outrageous ~$165 price tag. A great, balanced dram.

Nose slightly buttery with more spice and tannin as it opens up. Warming. Flavours are quite subtle with one single long green note then moving to fresh oak flavours and finishing with a little bit of boozy kick. The peat note reminds me more of moss. Lightly spicy finish of medium length.

Colour: Golden

Nose: I love this nose. is this a Balvenie? It starts with a nice Smokey aroma. Some kippers, some earthy musty peat, then the sweetness hits you. On top of all this peat floats a little malty sugary (burnt sugar kind of) sweetness. This is sheer beauty.

On second whiff, a certain fruitiness (peach? apricot? ) appears to hover above the smoky fire, now gone. i could be sniffing this little wonder of a dram for hours. this is very interesting. Not medicinal at all.

Palate: We start of with a sweet and malty feeling. creamy, Balvenie style. Some spicy peppery sort of feeling going on in my mouth as well, not spicy pepper, more like Smokey pepper. Butter, cream, oil. viscous stuff. some toffee, and the sugars are not missing.

Finish: Medium, with some cocoa, citrus zest, spices and of course the wee pepper notes, ending on bitters.

Bottom line:

A very well made dram. the nose is a-m-a-z-i-n-g, i just love it, the palate is good, but not quite as the nose. All in all, one of the better Balvenies I've tried. Better get going and secure a bottle. not many are there for grabs! (7000 bottles i reckon).

. . . but this isn't what I was expecting.

I'm an enthusiastic Balvenie supporter--I love their whiskies. I have at least seven other bottlings, most of which are among my favorites. I've introduced a lot of people to single malts, through Doublewood and the 15-year-old Single Barrel release, in particular.

The Peated Cask sounded wonderful to me; I'm a peat and smoke guy at heart. I live in New York State, but Islay is my default page on Google Maps. Port Ellen is my default location on accuweather.com. I have a map of Islay as my desktop background and Ardbeg peat cones to burn when drinking Scotch with my friends. I've crossed state lines to get Laphroaig 18 year old. I love peat and I love smoke. (Mostly I love Ardbeg.)

The challenge in this Balvenie is that this release isn't at all like heavily peated whiskies that I enjoy so much. Rather, it tastes unexpectedly like a young whisky that has spent all of its aging time in brand new, resiny, green oak.

This whisky has strong oaky resins on the palate, which momentarily bury the deep honey notes that are foundational to Balvenie whiskies--as well as everything else. The honey comes through in a bit, and is followed promptly by a blast of dry smoke, a sharp-edged characteristic that lingers for a long time and becomes more dry and sharply smoky as it fades.

My response to the Peated Cask isn't quite disappointment, but more of a sense of the lack of familiar Balvenie elements, whether finished in rum, port, sherry, or just oak casks. It's unfamiliar territory, which isn't a bad thing--but it doesn't charm me like I have come to expect from each new Balvenie release.

I'll still be first in line for the next new Balvenie release. I'll post a review of the Caribbean Cask, and contrast it with the Balvenie 17-year-old Rum Cask in a few days.

What an exciting day!!! The Good people at Balvenie distillery sent 10cl sample bottle of their new product for me: The Balvenie 17yo peated cask. It will become available for selected retailers in September for £70. I feel so lucky to be among the first to get taste of this innovative Whisky.

This is what happened: The master distiller David Steward bought some heavily peated barley from local producer. Made spirit out of it and stored it in oak casks. After few years the liquid was transferred to another set of casks. And, here is the interesting thing, usually smoky flavour of whisky comes at the start of proceedings. What Mr. Stewart and his team did next was that they took batch of 17yo. Balvenie, filled the empty casks that had previously had that heavily peated spirit. They left the Whisky there for few months. And end product was highly unusual but excellent tasting Balvenie Whisky.

The Whisky I have been tasting today still has the distinctive honeyd sweetness of Balvennie but with added punch of smoky oak from the casks it was finished. It is one of those that one would feel proud to offer to a good friend. Its unassuming and once you have it in your mouth there is really no need to talk about it as the taste is to such perfection that it explains itself.

You know the feeling when you are with someone you just met and it feels like you two have known each other for ever. Well, that's how drinking this feels. I have only positive things to say about the product.

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