Balvenie Single Barrel 25 Year

Well down to my final 10 samples..I was digging around for stuff for our holiday next week and found them tucked away. Not one to waste an opportunity I thought might as well crack a couple open given no work tomorrow. This and the Ardmore 30 year old were similar style and abv so a head to head tasting was in order I thought. I used to rate Balvenie however the last lot haven't impressed me that much. This one you get the white pepper, green wood characteristics quite strongly. It is a lovely dram very viscous and full of flavour. But a 4.6 average rating here leaves me scratching my head a bit. More like a 4 to 4.25 territory. If it wasn't for the bitter green wood finish it'd be .25 to .5 higher.

Strong alcohol feel with the higher 48 ABV. I’m not a big fan of high ABV, so it was intense to me. A couple drops of water added really helped take the edge off the alcohol and allowed the flavors to come through better. Nice tastes of honey and herbs, oakiness, leading into a long sweet finish.

smooth and mellow on nose spicy on tounge smoothest whiskey ive had to date

Nose honey, lemon, vanilla. Pallet oak, pepper, cinnamon