Balvenie's Collection Of Curious Casks

I visited Balvenie for the first time in 2013 and it immediately went into my top 5 list of distillery visits!

When I saw this new series pop up I knew I needed go get one!

 

Balvenie's website explains the Stories Collection

"The Balvenie Distillery is built on the stories that are told from one generation of craftspeople to the next. They are how we pass on what we know, how we process experiences, and how we create new ideas.

Each whisky has its own taste, but each is rich, luxuriously smooth and underpinned by the distinctively honeyed character of The Balvenie.

Storytelling is carried through every aspect of The Balvenie Stories – with each tale a bespoke artwork by British paint artist Andy Lovell. Each artwork represents the real-life stories of the people behind the whiskies, bringing meaning and emotion to the day-to-day passion and dedication to each whisky making craft a the distillery."

The collection's annual releases showcase the rich history of the distillery, you may have tried The Edge of Burnhead Wood or The Sweet Toast of American Oak, well Balvenie have just released four new bottles in the series under the subtitle "A Collection Of Curious Casks" - a 14yo American Bourbon Barrel, a 11yo  Hungarian Red Wine Cask, a 17yo New Spanish Oak Cask and an 18yo French Pineau Cask.

Wanting to explore the distillery character a little more I went for the 14yo, single cask #8967 which was bottled at 47.8% ABV

Distillery notes:

Destined for Single Barrel 12 glory, this whisky took an intriguing turn. Distilled just after peat week, a whisper of smokiness infused the spirit, a surprising note that complements the rich character imparted by our finest Bourbon casks during its 14-year slumber.

This unexpected encounter has yielded a whisky unlike any other, a testament to the subtle influences that shape a Balvenie. 

Candied orange peel is grounded in woody, earthy flavours from beautifully roasted malt and deep vanilla oakiness.

My thoughts:

Appearance: Pale gold in the glass, swirls cling as a thick line, bead up  quickly and fall as slow thick oily legs.

Nose: honey and lemon to start followed by orchard fruit: stewed apples, pears and ripe apricots. There's a lovely vanilla note and some fresh sawn wood. There's a little caramel and a hint of peat smoke before some candied orange and lemon slices round things off nicely.

Palate: runny honey, baking spices, candied citrus peel and drying icing sugar. The citrus sides towards orange but it's the spice which stands out: cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Each sip leaves the mouth dry and spicy with needed to take another. As you get into this more layers reveal themselves - baked rice pudding, lemon bonbons, caramel and a lovely faint peat smoke.

Finish: lingering spice, orchard fruit and honey notes.

Overall: this is a lovely dram - showing Balvenie as it's best - it's a single cask so there's been no finishing or tinkering. When we visited the distillery in 2023 we had an amazing tour you can read about here. I was able to hand fill 2 bottles from a sherry cask and bourbon cask in a warehouse - the whole experience put Balvenie 3rd in my list of favourite distillery tours!

The full Story:

A Collection of Curious Casks

Behind the weighty warehouse door lies a vast space filled with the heady aroma of wood and whisky. As your eyes slowly adjust to the darkness, thousands of casks are revealed. Shafts of light from the small warehouse windows illuminate the meticulously stacked library of liquid treasures.

There are the classics, and amongst them, rare and striking Single Casks, yet to be discovered. Amidst this scene, one man waits, dressed in a simple black t-shirt, despite Speyside's frosty temperatures. A second figure approaches, heralded by the sound of light footsteps which echo around the lofty warehouse.

As usual, their conversation is punctuated by peals of laughter. After delivering her Sample requests, Our Malt Master Kelsey McKechnie makes her way to the Tasting Room, leaving George Paterson alone in his natural habitat. He doesn’t linger long; he has a job to do.

They have worked in this easy way as long as George has been Warehouse and Samples Coordinator. Kelsey provides the guiding vision and know-how, and in her words, George, is "the dedicated man on the ground", with a keen mental map of the Warehouses that guide his daily rounds. Always quick with a smile, and sometimes a well-meaning prank, genuine joy for his role radiates from him”. The two make a perfect alliance. These all-important rendezvous are also an opportunity for George to flag anything he finds interesting. One notable cask kept being picked for a 40-year-old marriage and George recalls saying to Kelsey “please no, it's just too good to be blended away”. After replying that “he would have to let it go one of these days”, it was eventually tipped whilst he was on holiday, but not into the marriage it was originally fated for. This memorable single cask went on to become The Tale of the Dog, a proof point of the pair’s sharp instincts and intuition.

George has been watching over our precious casks and shepherding them to distinction for over a decade. A lot can happen in the span of ten years. Daily routines are fossilised into ritual, and unexpected discoveries can become legends. It’s these weird and wonderful outlier whiskies, born of interesting experiments, unique woods, and curious whims, that George takes a shine to.

His desire to share these rare treats makes him the perfect host for Warehouse Tastings, which he runs with Global Ambassador Charlie Metcalfe.

These tastings typically feature “unique and unexpected character, unusual casks that no one else has seen before - anything with a jaw-drop factor”, elaborates George. And thus, the whiskies released under this Story are inspired by just that, with Kelsey selecting an exquisite range of curious single casks that embody some of our finest hidden gems.

It’s true that much of the making of great whisky happens within the privacy of the casks. Flavour blooms, richness rises and layers settle in for the long haul; an alchemy encased in well-chosen wood. However, there’s a little something extra that makes our whiskies so special, and that takes place outside these precious vessels. The spark of brilliant ideas born from a simple conversation between friends amongst the casks.

Geeky bit:

Balvenie's Former Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE invented what we now know as cask finishing, in 1983 with The Balvenie Classic. The art of taking whisky from a cask and finishing it in a second, usually different one, to add some extra flavours. The Classic, which developed into the current DoubleWood 12, for example starts in a Bourbon Cask and is finished in a Sherry Cask. Nowadays most distilleries have 'finished' or 'secondary maturation' releases.