Week of Peat 14 yo
Balvenie Distillery
Scotland
48.3%
Mash bill: Peated malted barley
Barrels used: Ex-bourbon & virgin oak
I hope everyone has had a chance to dive into day one’s dram! Wasn’t it tasty? Today we take on completely different flavours!
May I introduce you to one of my favorite distilleries and a really fun expression of theirs...
Balvenie is one of the oldest Scottish distilleries, being built in 1892 and began making whisky in 1893. The malting floor that is still used today was first laid in 1929! They are the only distillery in Scotland that still grows its own barley, uses traditional floor maltings and keeps both a coppersmith and a team of coopers on site. Dedication to the “Five Rare Crafts’ they call it and admirable it is. It speaks loudly to their core beliefs and how they approach everything.
This Speyside distillery was not typically known for producing anything peaty, but this expression is a nod to efficiency and a constant desire to create. Ian Millar, distillery manager, noticed a week-long gap in the distillery's calendar before doing annual maintenance and cleaning. He had recently been over to Islay and wanted to experiment with what he had learned. The rest they say, is history. Since adding a peat-burner to the side of the kiln, they now malt their own peated barley & distill it one week each year!
Tasting notes: The result is a dram that has the continuous smooth creaminess of all things Balvenie. But with the added nuance of smoke and peat. It begins gently enough on the nose in the form of a vanilla butterscotch smokiness rolling into a stronger peat profile with bits of fresh orange on the palate. The salinity hits differently than an Islay, even at its peak it’s still calmer than those other peated expressions. In my mind though, that’s exactly what I expect from Balvenie. Bridging an entire experience in one dram that manages to stay balanced in its entirety. Heaven.
What do you think?