Tag: William Grant and Sons

Today I look at a Balvenie Limited Edition, the Balvenie Single Barrel 15 year old single malt Scotch whisky. William Grant was born in December 1839 in Dufftown. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker, after which he worked as a clerk.

Grant became a bookkeeper at Mortlach distillery 1866; he moved up the ranks and learned the distilling trade. After about twenty years, he left his job at the Mortlach distillery.

He  bought a field near Balvenie Castle. Grant drew up plans for his distillery, and the foundation stone was laid in the autumn of 1886. He remained active in the company until his death in 1923 at the age of 83.

Balvenie lies in the Convals in Dufftown. The single malt distillery lies just below the Glenfiddich distillery, sharing its water source, the Robbie Dhu springs. Despite sharing the water, Balvenie is hugely different in character from Glenfiddich. The Balvenie is the only single malt Scotch whisky distillery that still grows and malts its own barley.

The floor maltings at Balvenie also supply neighbouring Glenfiddich. Balvenie has been continually under the ownership of William Grant & Sons, proprietors. William Grant & Sons also own Speyside distilleries Glenfiddich and Kininvie.

The Balvenie Single Barrel is a 15 year old single malt that is drawn from a single traditional oak whisky cask of a single distillation. Each Balvenie Single Barrel 15 year old whisky is part of a limited edition of no more than 350 hand-numbered bottles – so each bottle is unique and unrepeatable.

Related Article:  Loch Lomond 12 yo whisky

The Balvenie Single Barrel 15 year old Whisky Review

I have bottle 159 from cask number 13529 bottled on 30 April 2008. The in-cask date was 6 October 1989.

REGION: Speyside

ABV: 47.5%

COLOUR: Very light golden. It has a nice oily texture in the glass, leaving beautiful fingers.

NOSE: On nosing the Balvenie Single Barrel, there are notes of fresh fruit, oak, honey and mild spice. The Balvenie Single Barrel has a freshness to the nose with some grassy notes. It is a medium-bodied whisky.

PALATE: On the palate, it brings lots of fresh fruit, honey, vanilla with hints of oak and ginger spice.  It has a slightly floral character with lots of oak peeking through. This 15 yo is not a very complex whisky, but it’s very drinkable.

FINISH: I found the finish relatively short. I love expressions from Balvenie, and maybe I am used to longer, more sophisticated finish. It ends with some pepper and honey sweetness notes. There are elements of fresh fruit, as well.

RATING: VERY GOOD

I have several expressions, and maybe I expected a bit more from this Balvenie Single Barrel 15 year old Scotch whisky. That is the problem when you have a distillery regularly spoiling us with stunning releases!

While this expression may not have been as smooth and rounded as some of its peers, it nevertheless is very drinkable. This whisky is an interesting expression and worth tasting if you get the chance.

I have also tried the Balvenie Roasted Malt as well as the Balvenie Doublewood whisky.

Balvenie & food pairing

Looking around for interesting food pairings, the conclusions seem to be that this Balvenie will pair best with meat. I found suggestions of pairing Balvenie Single Barrel with serrano ham as well as smoked short rib.

Perhaps I should try this Single Barrel with apricots stuffed with goat’s cheese and wrapped in bacon from one of my favourite food blogs, Drizzle and Dip. I think the richness of the goat’s cheese with the apricots and bacon would work well with the sweetness and spice in the whisky.

Also Read: How to pair whisky and cheese

In between working and raising a daughter meant that I had not had enough time to blog about my passion. Fortunately, the year is winding down, and I can once again turn to matters whisky! I have collected quite a bit of material and have lots to post in the coming weeks.

But for today I decided to taste a whisky that is presented in arguably one of the most beautiful boxes around. So today, I explore the Glenfiddich Madeira Cask 19 year old Age of Discovery single malt Scotch whisky.

It’s quite a mouthful of a name, but as it’s a Glenfiddich, I am looking forward to tasting. The Glenfiddich distillery is one of my favourite distilleries and produces a broad range of expressions. Located in Dufftown in the Speyside region of Scotland, the distillery was founded in 1886.

During whisky’s dark days of the 1960s and 1970s, when so many distilleries fell silent or were sold off, Glenfiddich survived. They did this by introducing advertising, innovations such as packaging in tubes and entering the duty-free market. As a result, Glenfiddich remains one of the few distilleries still in family hands and not owned by a large conglomerate.

The Glenfiddich Age of Discovery series comprises  three different expressions, Madeira, bourbon and wine casks finishes. My collection of whiskies include finishes in Sherry and bourbon casks, so when I travelled through London and spotted this at Heathrow airport, I had to get it. Madeira is a unique Spanish wine known for its sweet characteristics.

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Glenfiddich Madeira Cask 19 year old Whisky Review

The Glenfiddich 19 yo Madeira Cask Finish Age of Discovery single malt whisky is presented in a beautiful black bottle with red embossing near bottle’s neck.

REGION: Speyside

ABV: 43%

COLOUR: Antique gold. It’s beautiful when held up to the light.

NOSE: From a nose perspective, this whisky  is complex. You probably need to nose it on more than one occasion to unpack its characteristics fully. I found raisin, fruit cake, citrus and oak. Others have reported figs, gooseberry and fruit.

PALATE: The Glenfiddich 19 year old Madeira Cask produced cinnamon and pepper, more fruit and dry oak with hints of ginger. Its complexity probably requires further tasting! The 19 yo Madeira Cask Finish is a polarizing whisky, and John and I were initially split on what we thought of it.

RATING: VERY GOOD

It’s a complex whisky, so you need to give yourself time and allow it to breathe a bit.  In time and on later tastings, we may well change our view! It’s nice enough for us to look around for the other two expressions in the range. A 19 year old whisky is a bit of an unusual age statement and reflects something unique.

Glenfiddich whisky & Food pairing

One of the things that I have been working on is pairing whisky with food. I have previously blogged about this subject, and I thought I would share my thoughts and invite readers to comment on what pairing of this particular whisky and food worked well for them.

I have not tried this yet, but the Glenfiddich Age of Discovery fruity character means it will go well with goats’ cheese, figs and thyme flatbread as a starter served on the patio with a barbecue. This pairing is something I plan to try as soon as I get my hands on some fresh figs. It would probably work well on a winter’s evening in company with a raspberry and fig pie.

I paired this Glenfiddich Age of Discovery Madeira Cask Finish with some Lancashire Cheese.  It makes for an acceptable pairing.
Also Read: The Glenlivet 18 yo whisky