Inbox / The Week's Whisky News (October 28, 2022)

Welcome to Inbox, our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information. 

Inbox / The Week's Whisky News (December 17, 2021)

Welcome to Inbox, our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information. 

Review - The Balvenie DCS Compendium Chapter 3

The DCS Compendium is a super premium series of single cask whiskies from The Balvenie.  The series is formed of 25 single cask bottlings, which are split in to five chapters and released annually over five years, and is named after The Balvenie's long serving David C. Stewart.  He has worked for owners William Grant & Sons for 53 years and has hand selected each cask involved in the DCS Compendium, which designed to chart his knowledge and skills of David Stewart over five decades. 

Review - The Balvenie DCS Compendium Chapter 1

The DCS Compendium is new super premium series of single cask whiskies from The Balvenie, the renowned Speyside distillery.  The series will be formed of 25 single cask bottlings, which are to be split in to five chapters, and is named after The Balvenie's long serving David C. Stewart.  He has worked for owners William Grant & Sons for 53 years and has hand selected each cask involved in the DCS Compendium, which designed to chart the knowledge and skills of David Stewart over the five decades that he has been there. 

New release - Balvenie Tun 1401 (Batch #8)

The latest whisky in Balvenie's highly acclaimed Tun 1401 series has arrived. The series has won many plaudits across the globe, with different batches being released exclusively in different markets including the UK, Europe, the USA and travel retail. Each batch is created by the legendary Malt Master David Stewart, a veteran of over 50 years at Balvenie.  After selecting the casks, he puts them together in a huge oak vessel called a tun (in this case Tun No. 1401) and the different whiskies marry together over time.  This process takes roughly three months.

New release - Balvenie Single Barrel 12 years old

News of a new Balvenie release always gets the whisky blogosphere and consumers excited, and the news of this latest expression is no different.  The Balvenie Single Barrel 12 years old has just hit the shelves in the UK market and will sit alongside the popular core range of Balvenie single malts. A series of single first fill ex-bourbon casks have been hand selected by Balvenie's legendary Malt Master David Stewart for this release, and each cask will be bottled one at a time.

Exploring The Balvenie

David Stewart

The focus has well and truly been on The Balvenie this week.  On the 3rd of September David Stewart, the legendary Balvenie Malt Master responsible for the quality and consistency of every bottle of Balvenie, celebrated his 50th anniversary at the distillery.  He began as a 17 year old apprentice back in 1962 and, as reported in this week's Inbox, commemorated the special day by announcing the release of a Balvenie 50 years old single malt that has been maturing at the distillery as long as David has been there.

Inbox - September 7, 2012

Inbox is our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our email inbox. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece that we receive. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday.

Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information.  Check out what has attracted our attention this week ...

New release - Balvenie Tun 1401 (Batch #5)

This whisky is the latest to be released in Balvenie's highly acclaimed Tun 1401 series.  The series has won prizes and many plaudits across the globe and Batch #5 was released at the end of June.  This follows Batch #1 from 2010, Batch #2 from mid-2011, Batch #3 from late-2011 which was an exclusive for the USA market and Batch #4 which was released recently as a travel retail exclusive.  Each batch has been created by the legendary  Balvenie Malt Master David Stewart.

The Balvenie distillery is located in the town of Dufftown, which is in the famous Speyside whisky region of Scotland.  It was founded in 1892 by William Grant and is the sister distillery to Glenfiddich, which it is built next to.  Balvenie remains owned by William Grant & Sons today and has a current annual production capacity of 5.6 million litres.  It is regarded as one of the most traditional distilleries in Scotland, as all stages of the whisky making process happen on site in one form or another - this includes growing barley, malting, mashing, fermentation, distillation, coopering and maturation.

The fifth batch of the Tun 1401 has been crafted from nine of the rarest casks that have been maturing at the distillery – four ex-sherry butts distilled in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1975 and five ex-American oak casks from 1966, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1991.  After selection, David Stewart then mixed these individual casks together in a vessel called a tun. This is a large barrel/cask, traditionally made of oak, where different whiskies are allowed to 'marry together' for some time. In this case, he chose to use the finest tun at Balvenie for this marrying process - Tun Number 1401 - and the marrying process took approximately three months.

As with the previous releases, the Tun 1401 Batch #5 has a limited number of bottles available (we were not able to find the total amount, but only 700 are being released for the UK market).   It has been bottled at the natural cask strength of 50.1% ABV and the recommended retail price is around the £160-165 mark.

Our tasting notes
The colour is a dark golden amber and the nose is instantly rich, fragrant and expressive.  The immediate aromas are of milk chocolate and spiced orange.  Other aromas include plenty of wood spices (imagine cedarwood, nutmeg and cinnamon bark), dark dried fruits (prunes, dates, figs and raisins), vanilla, butterscotch, honey, black coffee and a hint of peach/apricot and earthy ginger.  It is a great smelling whisky.

On the palate this is rich, fruity and packs a little bit of a surprising punch.  There are plenty of initial wood spice and warming citrus notes that penetrate the taste buds and grip hard - think of cinnamon bark, nutmeg and zesty, dried lemons and oranges.  It makes the mouth water and as the saliva mixes, the whisky becomes more velvety and softer.  The spices soften but the zesty orange is exaggerated and becomes almost marmalade-like.  These notes combine superbly with others to create a palate of extreme depth, complexity and enjoyment - imagine honey, butterscotch, dried fruits (raisins and prunes especially), bitter dark chocolate, burnt caramel, toasted caramelised nuts and hints of demerara sugar and coffee.

The finish is long and uplifting with the elements mentioned carry through impressively, particularly the orange, dried fruits, burnt caramel and spices.  The spices seem to come back with a vengeance right at the end and give a warming, slightly tannic dryness to the finish.

This whisky is well balanced as it is presented, but the strength makes you think to add water.  After a few drops the dried fruitiness of the nose is highlighted with the intense wood spices knocked back a little.  The palate still packs plenty of intensity in with the orange note still prominent, along with the burnt caramel and chocolate.  A hint of peach also comes through very well.  The result is equally as good as without water.

What's the verdict?
This is easy - this whisky is very impressive and an absolute cracker.  The balance, depth, complexity and intensity is superb and shows David Stewart's incredible knowledge of selecting and then marrying casks to compliment each other in this way.  The whisky is equally as expressive either with or without water and is truly outstanding. 

David Stewart is celebrating his 50th anniversary with William Grant & Sons this year and has chosen a great way to commemorate that acheivement - to release of a whisky of this sublime quality.

New releases > Balvenie Tun 1401 (Batch #2)

This second batch of the Balvenie Tun 1401 was released during the early Summer.  The first batch of this limited edition whisky, which was created by the Balvenie's experienced Malt Master David Stewart, has already gone down in legend.  This made the release of this second batch highly anticipated. The first batch, which was released in 2010, contained just 336 bottles and was only on sale at the distillery shop.  Thankfully, the second release consists of more bottles (just under 3,000) and has been distributed in the UK and small amounts to selected other markets around the world.

The Balvenie distillery is located in the famous Scottish whisky town of Dufftown in the heart of the Speyside region. It is one of the largest and most famous in Scotland with an annual production level of 5.5 million litres. Balvenie is still owned by the original founders, the innovative William Grant & Sons, and was built in 1892 to help their other overworked distillery at Glenfiddich, which is next door.  Balvenie is a unique distillery - it has its  own floor maltings (the room used for the germination of the barley), a cooperage where they construct casks and they even grow some of the barley used for production within the distillery grounds. Most of these processes are carried out by external companies in the modern whisky industry.  Each year over 1.5 million bottles of Balvenie are sold across the world, putting it well inside the top 10 for total sales of single malt, and this continues to grow.

So, how is this whisky made and what is the significance of the name? To produce it David Stewart selected 10 premium casks from his warehouses and these have been put together in a vessel called a tun.  This is a large barrel/cask, which is traditionally made of oak, where different whiskies are allowed to 'marry together' for some time.  In this batch, he chose to again use one of the finest tuns at Balvenie for this marrying process - tun number 1401 - which took three months. The range of the 10 casks selected is interesting - one from 1967, one from 1989 and the other eight from the 1970s, mostly the early part of the decade.  Seven are ex-bourbon casks and three are ex-sherry casks. The Tun 1401 Batch 2 has an alcohol strength of 50.6% ABV and is available from specialist retailers for £150 a bottle.

Our tasting notes
The colour of this whisky is golden amber and the nose is deep, rich and complex.  There is plenty going on here with aromas combining well and grabbing your attention. There is an immediate hit of tangy candied orange peel with is mellowed by soft vanilla, honey and cereal aromas. Then come further aromas of dark dried fruit (think of raisins, dates, prunes and figs), slightly burnt caramel and soft wood spices, such as cedarwood, cinnamon and nutmeg.  The nose is very tempting.  On the palate, the age of the whiskies involved becomes clear.  It feels soft and velvety, despite the strength, but is lifted by the tangy candied orange from the nose.  The depth and complexity covers many notes - caramel, honey and vanilla offer sweetness, dark dried fruits and cereals offer something bittersweet and the wood spices give pleasant dryness and bite.  There are also notes of dark chocolate, fresh espresso coffee and dried tropical fruits (imagine pineapple and mango especially) adding to the character.  The finish is fantastically long with notes of spiced orange, dried fruit (both the dark and tropical ones from the palate) and drying oak lingering longest.

Although this whisky is very rounded and balanced as it is, the high ABV strength tends to suggest adding a dash of water.  Upon doing this, the tropical notes seen on the palate and finish also appear prominently on the nose.  The tangy orange is reduced, while the honey aromas increase.  A similar thing happens on the palate - the tropical and honey notes are more prominent, as is the chocolate and coffee bitterness.  The finish is a little shorter, with less dryness and more honey and vanilla than before, plus some brown sugar notes.

What's the verdict?
We are fans of most things Balvenie - the Doublewood 12 years old was one of the first whiskies to get us 'interested' in whisky and the Golden Cask 14 years old remains one of our all-time favourites - but on the occasions that we have tasted older expressions, we have left slightly disappointed.  Not here - this is a simply fantastic whisky that is packed full of interest, complexity and depth.  It is in a whisky like this that the skill of the master blender is evident, as he has married 10 highly individual casks in to one beautiful and balanced single malt whisky.