Balvenie Tun 1509 Batch 4

* Sydney Balvenie whisky tasting night, 26 April 2018. Whisky #5. Nose: Ironbark honey, malt, apple conserve with cloves and cinnamon, warm Anzac biscuits (Google it if you’re not an Aussie), and a resinous thread of oak with some anise lurking in the corners. A much more cereal and earthy nose than any other Balvenie I’ve tried, with a whiff of sulphur (which I didn’t mind – it just added a funky soil note). Palate: A glorious arrival of chewy, fragrant oak. Vanilla and spices (ginger, cardamom, cinnamon), shortbread covered with milk chocolate. Dried fruit compote. A complex, multi-faceted development with heather honey, red cherries, raspberries, more spices (ginger) and some older leathery oak. A salivatingly firm, immense, mouth-coating texture. Finish: Long, long, long. Ginger spice, sweet malt balancing oak tannin. Some lighter fruity notes make a surprise appearance. It stays with you effortlessly. I was surprised by how different this whisky was to everything that had preceded it. Less of the classic Balvenie profile - woodier and muscular throughout. Another participant said she was surprised how different this was to the Batch 3 expression, which had more “juicy” characteristics. I enjoyed it a great deal and thought it to be the best whisky of the night. The 21 year old Port Wood was not far behind, but this had more complexity and was “interesting” rather than friendly. It’s a quite expensive whisky, but worth it if you have that sort of disposable income. “Excellent” : 88/100 (4.5 stars) Addendum: There was a 6th expression in the flyte but I can’t list it on Distiller. It was a hand-drawn cask sample of 35 year old Balvenie provided for us by the brand ambassador. Aged exclusively in refill bourbon and about 45% abv, it is one of the ingredients in the Tun 1509 Batch 4 and was stunning. The nose was astonishingly a return to the 12 year old doublewood, with fresh fruits and immense honey and vanilla, but also with an unmistakable maturity but hardly any oak character. The palate – well, it was like drinking liquid gold and probably the most mellow whisky I’ve ever tasted. Imagine a whisky that tastes almost like melomel and you’re getting there. It had something of a resemblance to Highland Park 18.

I’m in New Orleans for fun; , it’s a beautiful old city rich with history and ghost stories - the town is filled with sweaty bridal parties with their arms linked together like the figures in the game “barrel of monkeys” by Milton Bradley (and just as generic), face licking, bible thumpers, thongs, mesh gloves, street vomit, tall phallic token glasses with many plastic straws (obviously this straws are all headed directly for the nasal passages of sea turtles shortly after being discarded), and leashes for full grown men. I partied hard in my 20’s and early 30’s - which leaves me feeling a bit more like a coach than a player in this wild world- and with a target 10:30 bed time (by choice) it doesn’t leave me much room for the wild stuff- besides wildly overpriced booze, a nice dinner with my lady, and a couple hits of Maui wowie vape oil from the pen before bed - if anything is wild for me these days- it’s in my dreams. Annnnnyway- on to the Whiskey - I just caught the 10second ass end glimpse of Balvenie on “Shark Tank” - I’ll have to look it up to see what happened- enough rambling - this $90 pour had an echo of the younger Balvenie - but for me I was overtaken by oak- it was very very dry and had some of the oldest most aggressive oaking i’v tasted to date- I got a little dark chocolate and raisins, but was too overtaken by the oak and spice on the back end to really feel engaged with this whiskey. Idk- I’ll have to try it again- but at this point I’d say meeah... I’m not wild about this one- the spice and oak isn’t vibrant; it tastes more like mouthing a pice of driftwood. NOLA!

Price has to be a factor here. I had $130 in gift cards, and it was still over $200. You go in expecting a lot. Age: NAS (Anyone know?) Nose: caramel, vanilla, honey, apricots, oranges. Palate: silky smooth. Great legs. Oily. Inviting. Starts off with the apricot and honey, and that is the flavor that you ride throughout. It's excellent. A hint of peat...just the usual balvenie hint. Finish: long and lingering. The honey apricot thing stays with you. Listen, this is delicious stuff. If it was $150, I would be very happy with it...however, it's basically three times that price. It's not a game changer. In fact, I drank it next to Glencadam 10...and regardless of the price, I enjoyed the 10 just as much, if not more. I also had the balvenie 15 sherry next to this, and I like it just as much, if not more. Good stuff though. I will review it again in a couple of months when it's opened up. In a certain way though, this stuff feels way overpriced to me. No sherry bomb. No crazy tropical fruits like single barrel aged exclusively in bourbon barrels. I know that I need to give it more time, and I will. I did however give it 30 minutes to breathe, and another hour to drink.

Local bar has it at $90 a pour. A hard ask to be sure. Nose: Cream, Apricot Jam, Honey, Apple pie Palate: Mostly the same. Overwhelmingly rich, orange blossom honey. Prune trickles in at the side. Maple notes accompany pound cake Finish: Not as effortlessly distinguished as the palate. Lemon curd and deep char balance the robust sweetness of the nose and palate. Had I paid for the pour, I'd be inclined to rate a 3~3.5. While this bottle is an exceptional whiskey, it falls short in many of the ways NAS whiskeys do. Namely a short-lived and relatively unforgiving finish. A lemony oak lingers briefly, forgetting the rich syrupy palate. If that creamy honey stayed along for the ride I'd say it is near the top of the regions best offerings.

Nose: Sweet, deep rich malts with dried fruits. Sweet honey, green apples, raisins, dried orange peels with some sherry notes. Sweet vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg round to round it off. Palate: Slight peppery spice with sweet, rich oak. Coats the mouth well, and leaves you with sweet honey, vanilla, baking spices and subtle oak notes. Dried fruits, with slight sherry Long enjoyable finish. Final Thoughts: This is an very good pour. Tasted against Batch 3, and batch 7. Prefer it ahead of batch 7, below batch 3.

Pronounced honey, apple, vanilla, sharp tobacco spice, menthol, & spearmint come through to start things off. Malty cereal with maple syrup and a dash of salt on the mid palate. Rich barrel char, leather, medicinal/earthy mint & spices (think cinnamon/cardamom/ginger) linger on the tongue while a nice burn sits in your chest for a long finish. Sublime dram. Hard to justify the price point to most but I’m willing to fork it over to enjoy this every full moon or so.