Revisiting a dram I tried early on in the whisky journey, and I believe one of the first single malts I tried. With time and many malts tried since then, how does this hold up? First pass on the nose offers up malt and honey primarily, with a puff of musty sherry rancio. After so many sherry bombs, this one is downright tame. Little fruit. After letting it sit on the palate for a bit, the nose doesn’t change much. Simple. Inoffensive. Lovely. On the palate I get honey, toffee, Heath bar, a little waxy chocolate like in a Kit Kat bar, the faintest of fruit, and lots of malt. It’s oily. Fat legs in the glass that really coat the mouth and let the flavor linger. One of its best features. The finish lasts surprisingly long for 43%. Quite impressive. So what to rate? This is an easy whisky to drink. No sharp edges or bold flavors. This was suggested to me as a good introduction to single malt, and that opinion still holds. It checks a lot of boxes. For my palate now, I want more. If something is advertised as sherry finished, I want more sherry in the palate and nose. This seems like they were going more for the liquid Whoppers than a sherry bomb. Then there’s the price. Balvenie is one of those distilleries that charges way more than they should because they can. This retails for around $55-65 depending on your market. I’d feel good paying $50 for this, bit not much more. Not for what you can get for $60 these days with a sherry influence. I’m going 3.25 today. Great pour for a friend who’s new to single malt, but a bit one dimensional for the experienced drinker. Cheers!