Balvenie 15 Year Old Single Sherry Barrel Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml)

One of the finest Balvenie 15 year olds that I’ve tasted. The flavors are clean, well defined, confident, and beautifully balanced. Full malty foundation (with some ripe barley thrown in). Soft, creamy vanilla, honeycomb, bright fruit (orange, nectarine, lemon peel, hints of pineapple), with emerging dried vanilla, coconut, oak resin, and subtle anise. Polished oak finish. It doesn’t have the depth that the classic older Balvenies have shown in the past, but what it does have, it has in spades. Quite splendid! (3/2010)

Matured exclusively in a former Sherry cask for at least 15 years, this amber single-malt Scotch has Sherry-like dried-fruit and vanilla scents. The palate is boldly smoky and relatively dry, with a lift of iodine and sea breeze, plus vanilla, praline and a spicy, rather fiery finish. (KN) (12/2015)

This is the new 15 year old sherry barrel release from Balvenie (the photo does not reflect the specific barrel in stock). This limited release has become one of the most popular expressions from the excellent Dufftown-based distillery. Balvenie is one of the few distillers to retain traditional distilling and malting practices. They dry their barley over a mixture of light peat and anthracite coal, which creates a complexity that industrial maltsters' electrically-heated fans cannot mimic. While it's not peaty after years spent in barrel, it does offer a complexity unmatched by other Speysiders. These single barrels have spent 15 years in fresh first-fill European Oak Oloroso sherry butts, thereby complementing the incredibly complex spirit of the Balvenie Distillery with the rich flavors of that special Spanish wine. For many aficionados, this is now the quintessential expression. Producer note: "Each cask is subtly different—Malt Master David Stewart hand selects each barrel for its flavor of dried fruits, nuts and spice. No more than 650 hand-numbered bottles are drawn from each sherry butt, making every bottling unique and unrepeatable. The Balvenie 15 Year Old Single Barrel is bottled at a higher strength."