Balvenie 17 : Double Wood, a single malt scotch whisky hailing from the Speyside region. Had this one from a sampler package. Sampled 1/10/16 with 1 teaspoon of water in a Glencairn spirits nosing glass.
Aroma - Wood sap to start, very resinous, baked apple, bittered honey, distant rye, burnt sugar cookie, marzipan and roasted peanuts, a decently promising nose but...
Taste - Butter, cherry lozenges, very faint sherry and wood bittering, incredibly flat and one dimensional.
Finishes with a quickly fading flavor and medium lingering burn.
Final score : 1.5 / 5, for what a one-dimensional and non-complex whisky this is, the 95+ price point it commands is not at all worth the product you're getting. The 17 years this whisky has spent maturing has not done much justice to the overall product. You could get much similar flavor profiles from far cheaper whisky. Not to say the whisky itself is inherently nasty to the taste, but my scoring is based as well on the price asked, and the price and flavor here, do not line up.