I just purchasad a bottle of The Balvenie Single Barrel SMS, 15 year old. It was actually in the cask over 17 years, 9 months when bottled at 47.8% abv.
Picture and more at alt.binaries.food, Subject: PING Graeme,
Why would they call it 15? Did they perhaps vat it with something slightly younger?
Either way, let us know what you think of it.
bill
I dunno, Bill. Maybe 20 was the next step?
I'll pop it when my buddy makes a return visit and will post our tasting notes, such as they may be, here and at a.b.f.
Talking about bottlings that are a bit old for their age, I recently found a Linkwood 10 yo from Dun Bheagan (William Maxwell & Co). It is distilled 1993 and bottled 2006... The explanation I have been told in that case, Bill, is that they started to bottle (and market) it as a actual 10 yo, and found that the common customer will come back looking for "Linkwood 10 yo" again, not something else. So they kept the "10 yo" as kind of a brand name or market name (you know, like "Laphroaig 10" or whatever) , allthough the whisky bottled in 2006 actually was 13 years old. I guess they try to find barrels not too different from the previous ones for their single barrel bottlings at Balvenie, and they probably call it 15 yo even if now and then an older cask is chosen, so not to confuse the ordinary customer coming back for more...
Gunnar
"bill van" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@news.telus.net...
The age is rather curious because The Balvenie doesn't seem to be shy about stating age for their products. I'll check my bottle next time I'm at the cabinet. I have the following in my stock:
10 yr. Founder's Reserve 43% 12 yr. Doublewood 43% 15 yr. Single Barrel 1990/2006 47.8% 21 yr. Portwood 43%They also have a 17 yr. New Wood that I haven't been able to find.
I have the following in my stock:
Great minds think alike! I have a mirror image of this fine collection. My Single Barrel was distilled 1/8/89 and bottled 7/12/04. Cask 9648 bottle
171. The nose and flavor is somewhat unique compared to most scotches I've had the pleasure to sample.I watched a recorded tasting done by Dr. Dave Stewart where he introduced the New Wood "experiment." The comments were that it was very similar to American Bourbon. I wonder if that was well received by the scotch industry. The tasters didn't seem to flinch much but it could be because they knew the camera was on them :-)
The age discrepancy reported in this thread is interesting. On my bottle the dates appear in red ink as if typed on the label. The bottle number is hand written. On the literature I received with my bottle a picture of the single barrel label appears to have the dates distilled in 89 and bottled in 1999. That's only 10 years. Upon closer examination the 89 is actually 84. The handwritten 4 looks like a 9. Could the dates on the bottle in question here have a "whoops" on it?
In any case, I find myself liking the Balvenie in all its expressions. In my neck of the woods, the Balvenie is considerably less expensive than a lot of the other well known single malts. More reason to drink more Balvenie.
Regards to the group,
Daniel
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.