Balvenie Triple Cask 16 Year

Nose: Intense, enveloping sweet honey, vanilla and some wonderful oak aromas. Great complexity in the oak with the various casks being apparent, if not individually identifiable. Like strolling through a sherry bodega. [The dry glass aroma is sweet heather honey and surprisingly reminiscent of Highland Park 18]. Palate: Sweet, rich and fruity. A little touch of spice (allspice, cinnamon), brown sugar, raisins, golden syrup, honey. There is a nice complexity of sweet cider flavours floating over the richer fruit. Finish: Not long, quite short and sweet. This is an immediately appealing whisky with all-pervading honey, caramel and fruit characteristics. Highly drinkable, soothing and completely approachable. This would be a terrific prestige whisky to give that friend who has begun to explore whisky, now finds the usual introductory drams to be a bit simple, and is craving more, but does not have the palate for highly peated or maritime spirits, or for intense sherry finishes. On the other hand it could be overly sweet and cloying for some palates so I’d recommend a trial taste before buying a bottle. It’s the same price as the Balvenie 17 year Doublewood but is a much softer and more caramel-based experience. In terms of quality the two are roughly equivalent, but the profile of the 17 year may be more interesting to the experienced palate. I have to confess to being rather partial to this, so I'm being generous with the score. “Very Good” : 86/100 (4 stars)

Nose : After a powerful malt start, vanilla takes control of the show, clearly due to the first fill bourbon casks. It is followed by fruity sweetness, candied citrus, peach. Taste : Great balance of oak, vanilla and fruits. Taste is soft, vanilla more in presence, and giving the alcool taste instead of malt. Finish : It is smooth, with much less malt than the nose. Dominated by oak in the start, it slowly drifts towards candied lemon peel.

The nose has pear, peaches and honey suckle. The palate is the best part of the sip, honey and oak dominate. the three different oaks really give it a lot of complexity with the sherry cask being the least dominant in the pour in my opinion. Really really nice scotch.

Is there something as a wood overpowered whisky? The 16 Balvenie might just answer that question. Not as sophisticated as I remember it nor as a pleasant as I thought. I do look forward to the 21, with no first filled ex-bourbon casks preferably this time.

NOSE: More bourbon than sherry notes. PALATE: Bit of fruit and spice, but the vanilla and honey dominate. Finish is oily and silky. OVERALL: Very friendly and well executed but perhaps a rather safe choice for a connoisseur looking for bold flavor.

Nosing: light fruits, pleasant nosing, apples, pear 3 Flavour: wow hit you with a bunch of strong flavour, bourbon oak woody hit, timberish, vanilla, peppery bitter finish 1.5 Finish: fruity finish, sweet, With no smoke, bitter 2