Balvenie 15 Year Old

Nose: Anjou pear, wild onion, honey comb, slight hints of Pappy Van Winkle 20, summer air down by the deserted railroad tracks in summertime near the Willamette River when your nose is young and keen, your blood is flowing strong, and your whole life is ahead of you, along with fossils to be dug in the flakey sandstone on both sides of you, with a pick in your hand, and nothing around but the birds and the insects to witness you liberate the trilobites from their 270 million year sarcophagus!

Too nostalgic for some of you whisky connosrs? Bah humbug! That's one of the best things that a good whisky can offer! To help reignite memories through a complex organic aging of vegetal matter in the most magical of ways! What do you think "Water of Life" means, eh? Aqua vitae, indeed. At its best, it's merely a crutch to help us connect with the universe that is pulsating all around us, beyond space and time.

Palette: Wonderful blend of organic sugar cane in the raw, asian pear, model airplane glue, floral scents, bee pollen.

Finish: No overly long, but luxuriant. Lingering bee pollen, pear, honey, treacle, honey suckle, pie crust.

I like this dram better than the 21 that I recently reviewd. The nose on the 21 was better, without question, but this dram is not prone to woody bitterness on the palette. That was unfortunate.

In many ways, the 21 overextended the ability of this whisky in the wood. I think 18 years would be ideal for this whisky that I am tasting now in the 15 year bottle. A bit longer than 15, but not all the way to 21.

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