Balvenie 15 Year Single Barrel Sherry Cask

 

This is a bottle I've been eager to try for some time - thank you to Rob Martin for the final dram out of this one! Balvenie was one of the first "real" bottles of Scotch I had - one that made me realize the full flavor universe of Scotch. Specifically, it was probably the 14 year Caribbean Cask, back in 2014 or so. I've always respected the quality of their spirit. Therefore, it was only a matter of time and opportunity until I reviewed the 15 Year single barrel sherry cask release.

Released at 47.8%, this bottle comes from cask 5786, bottle 166. It's non-chill-filtered (yay!), and has been matured exclusively in a sherry butt for all 15 years - no word on what kind of sherry. I managed to find another review from the same cask! Let's see how it compares:

Nose: Wow, fascinating - not the traditional sherry bomb, this. Heavy rancio notes all over the nose - balsamic vinegar, salted beef, and that peculiar scent of plum skins. Scotch and Sheen finds furniture polish, and after some time in the glass, I agree. They also get the plum essence that I do. I'm not as sure about the toasted nuts, but ... ok. 

Mouthfeel: Medium, oily. 

Palate: Tons of sulfur here, and thus an extremely "meaty" presentation. Red fruit... also a lot of drying red wine elements; Scotch and Sheen agrees. I concur with their discovery of tobacco - bitter tobacco leaf. Oak. Here, I find toasted nuts. This is weirdly... gritty. A lot of heavy sulfur texture. These must have been a really unusual sherry cask! 

Finish: Quite short. Rancid raisins, sulfur, light oak notes. It fades away quite rapidly. 

Verdict: I agree with Scotch and Sheen - not what I was expecting. Usually full-maturation sherry bombs end up like Macallan or Aberlour and so forth: sweet, red fruit for days (raisins, plums, grapes, more), with light notes of thick balsamic vinegar and that very distinct "rancio" note. This is inverted: the rancio is everywhere, it's quite savory, with only hints of the usual sherry fruit. Fascinating! An interesting bottle from start to finish.