Balvenie 1970 42yo Sherry Cask [From Paris with Love]

Hi everyone,

Wah! This is exciting!!

I happened to be walking past the Balvenie stand and noted that they were pouring whisky from a bottle with a handwritten label. I managed to catch them just as they were trying to hide it underneath the stand and asked what it was.

Turns out David Stewart had just done a masterclass at Whisky Live Paris and this was the final whisky from the tasting. A 1970 Single Sherry Cask, bottled at 42 years old.

I also tried the 17 Doublewood as a kind of warm up.

Balvenie 17 Doublewood 43%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Really classically fruity, lots of honey and nice florals.

Taste: Fruity and sweet, honey, nicely balanced.

Finish: Medium/long length. Honeycomb and beeswax.

This is a really nice one and a big step up from the 12 (which I’m not too fond of).

79/100

 

Balvenie 1970 Single Cask 42yo Sherry 58.8%

Colour: Dark amber

Body: Full

Nose: Like any great Balvenie, this just oozes class. Antique, leather, Sherry, orange blossom, cherry, old polished wood, old antique furniture, really complex and balanced, slight medicinal note with cough sweets. Cocktail cherries too. Amazing nose.

Taste: Sherry arrival, so soft, so epic. Old wood, dry oak, layers of complex spices, orange blossom, crystallised honey, beeswax, oily amazing mouthfeel.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Sweetness goes, then dry oak, leather and chocolate come back with some spice. Not as amazing as the nose and taste, a little too dry.

WOW! Layers and layers to the taste, just keeps developing in the mouth. Emotional. Extraordinary. If the finish hadn’t been a little too dry, this could have been my first 93!

91/100

This makes Balvenie the only whisky so far (not for long) the only distillery with two whiskies on my 90+ list, after the awesome Tun 1401.

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Reviews #461-#462

Whisky Network Reviews #526-#527

Network Average: 74.3

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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