Time and again, this blend impresses me. I have yet to meet a bottle of Ballantine’s that I do not love. The Ballantine’s 17 yo and the Scapa Distillers Edition are divine whiskies. And today I am trying one of the older releases in my collection. The Ballantine’s 30 year old blended Scotch whisky. What a long time that is. A whole lifetime.
Imagine how the world changed from when the spirit first entered into the barrel until it was bottled. With the amazing improvements in technology we see today, this whisky was a youngster before cell phones. Now smartphones have more computing power than the first space ships. A lot has changed in the 30 years.
As with so many well-known blends today, Ballantine’s Scotch whisky can trace its heritage back to 1827, when George Ballantine set up a small grocery store in Edinburgh. He started supplying a range of whiskies to his customers. In 1865 George and his son Archibald opened a larger business in Glasgow.
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Here he concentrated on the wine and spirit trade, and he also began to create his own blends. These blends inspired additional demand and his second son George Jnr joined the business.
After George Snr’s passing, the sons sold the company to allow for more expansion, and after various owner changes, it ended up in the Pernod Ricard stable.
The Ballantine’s flavour is dependent on malts from Miltonduff, Scapa and Glenburgie and blended with many other single malts and single grains. The Ballantine’s 30 year old blended whisky has won a Gold at the International Spirits Challenge, and Jim Murray gave it 94 points.
COLOUR: Golden amber
NOSE: The nose explodes with richness and complexity. It has honey, Christmas cake, caramel, toffee dried oak, vanilla and sherry with faint hints of smoke. All wonderfully combined.
PALATE: Rich and full-bodied, it is super smooth. Bits of oak spice swirling around dried fruits and nuts. Dark chocolate and treacle lurk somewhere with suggestions of smoke. Each sip brings out different notes on the palette. The Ballantine’s 30 year old has a beautiful balance between spicy and sweet. Adding water softens the spices a bit, and it is better without water.
FINISH: This is probably the best finish I have had in a long, long time. It never ends! It’s just brilliant going on and on and slowly slipping away like a sunset but leaving a wonderful glow.
RATING: DIVINE
I love Ballantine’s whisky. There is something in the combination of spice and sweetness from the distilleries that Ballantine’s uses that just works on my palate. Over the last couple of years, this has become my favourite blended whisky range.
From the entry-level to this masterpiece, Ballantine’s consistently set an amazingly high bar for the craft of the whisky maker. And this bottle is no exception. Rich, complex and utterly delicious! Probably one of my favourite Ballantine’s bottles ever.
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