Tastes

Let me preface this by saying I’m a huge balvenie fan and absolutely love the week of peat series. I splurged on this at duty free very excited to try something a little older. The last one i enjoyed was the 14. Im underwhelmed. Its good but not great. Too sweet, syrupy and the peat just doesnt integrate well. I paid way too much to give this higher than an 80.

Has all the classic ardbeg notes, smoke from a fire thats going out, sweet peat, citrus. Lots of wood influence no doubt from the 19 years this spent in the barrel. Theres a mild but prevalent bitterness which im assuming is from the cask. Its a very good whisky but at $270-300 i was hoping for more. I liked the previous batch of this better. The finish goes on for days…i just wish it was an aftertaste i enjoyed. I’m getting mostly Bitter smoky tar. Which sounds worse than it is.

A good but not great whisky. Has the trademark fiery smoke and brine of lagavulin and the intensity of their cask strength offerings. Its on the vegetal side perhaps due in part to the virgin oak finish. Theres a bitterness and spiciness that pervades the palate and when combined with the brine reminds me of eating fresh olives. Its not unpleasant but also a bit overwhelming. Purchased this at the distillery so it will always be special to me but i wouldn’t seek out another. Which is probably for the best since i guess they only bottled like 6000 of these. Im predisposed against virgin oak. I think it completely overwhelms the spirit and lagavilin has such a lovely base its a shame to cut into it. That being said this is one of the best virgin oak scotches I’ve had. Guess if i wanted plain 12CS i fould just buy that release. Variery is good.

This is one of my favorite scotch profiles…even influence of fresh malt, mildly smoky peat, and sea kissed brine. Its a remarkably clean taste across the board and a dram i enjoyed start to finish. The wine casks add an interesting sweet and fruity note without overwhelming. I havent done a side by side with the regular 10 to compare and im not sure this bottle will last long enough for me to search it out and try. Guess ill have to buy another!

Fiery peat and spiky. Im a huge fan of the special release 12y CS. Have had every release since 2018. This is a solid entry and reminiscent of the others in the series but not quite as good as the previous years. It just lacks the complexity and signature lemon vegetal notes of its predecessors. As the price has creeped up to rhe $160 range these are unfortunately no longer auto buys. I wouldnt buy again at $140 but rather would seek out older vintages. Even the 2021 was superior with 2019/2020 my faves.

The expert notes are dead on here. The only thing i’d add is i get a lot of buttered popcorn and white pepper.

Fruit forward on the nose with sweet ripened orchard fruits intermingled with the clean grassy cereal notes of a well made irish. A touch of heat at the end reminds you this is cask strength. Its a beautiful nose - albeit slighly inferior in complexity to the blue spot. Baking spice, cinnamon and ripe bananas explode on fist sip, its got a bite. This isnt a dessert wine. Theres almost too much going on all at once, which is interesting and confusing at the same time. The finish is moderately long, with the baking spices and plum lingering in the background. Ive now had all the spots with the exception of the wine finished greens. Id rate them roughly as follows: blue>gold>red >yellow and then green without accounting for value. If you add value back in yellow rises above red. Id been lucky enough to find a blue very early in its run but had to wait for almost 3 yrs for a second and third. The gold spot was nearly impossible to find and became a sort of white whale for my mates and me until we finally located one. I can see what the hype was about, but to me the blue edges it out. I love how tighyly coiled and restrained the blue is. They both have similar notes and flavors but gold mashes the keys all at once and holds them down until you drown in them. Blue is like a jazz orchestra that takes a while to get going but when all the notes come into harminy it produces something greater than the sum of the parts. Glad i tried this and id likely get another for msrp.