Balvenie 16 Year French Oak Pineau Cask Finish

Fresh off the presses we have a new series frmo Balvenie, a french oak series. This spend 16 years in traditional casks and then a few months in french oak pineau casks which seems rather short but even on the nose here, it did it's job. Nose - The nose is surprisingly bold and unbalanced for a balvenie. There's the classic Balvenie with honey malt and rich sweet candied malts. Then you get some fairly rough oak notes, perhaps even a short maturation brought in some french oak spice but wow if that's where it is coming from, that got into the whisky fast. Then there's this very strong white wine note. Sweet and sour with fairly strong oak elements. I get some honey comb cereal, vanilla, almost slightly sour frosting, There's a very rich dessert note that seems to blend that rich vanilla frosting and some kind of sour fruit preserve and grains. Really strong aroma and very interesting. Taste - it's exactly what you'd expect. Classic Balvenie malt, that dark honey and sweet play off the "traditional" oak casks. Good spice from oak. Very nice oak levels, more than expected. The wine is clearly sweet with sugars and distinct white wine. I'm not getting any distinct wine notes I can pull out but to be frank, I'm not a wine guy so there's more here, but I can't really draw out any special notes. Though I'm not just not a wine guy but I've never even bought a white wine, a few red's but never white. Toasted oak on the finish as well. I have no idea how this has this much oak character. It makes me assume the french oak marketing isn't just bs. 2.25. It's perfectly fine, just above average whisky. I like it and we'll see how it develops, but for now that's a fair score. I like it, I'm glad I have it, I won't buy another bottle but this finish isn't my favorite thing.