Round two of the Balvenie tour. This seems to be a popular offering, and one I’ve been looking forward to trying for a while. What shall we discover? I don’t always agree with the official Distiller reviews, but this one is spot on. The nose is tropical fruits like mangos, papaya, pineapple, and bananas, along with malt, honey, and toffee. All of that is wrapped in a big double shot of vanilla from the bourbon and the rum casks. Some rum finishes are over cooked and come across with too much rum funk and saccharine sweetness like Pike Creek 10 Year, but this one is well balanced. On the palate it enters much like the 12 Year Doublewood. Toasty malt and barley sugar. Honey and toffee. All good things. The rum influence doesn’t become apparent until the finish, when there’s a big surge of vanilla that drags out the finish. Balvenie is an oily spirit, and it clings to the glass and your taste buds. So what to score? I would happily drink this if someone offered it to me. The nose is the best part, with the tropical fruits and vanillas, followed by the lovely long vanilla finish. Is it worth $80-90 a bottle? In my opinion, no. I might pay $60-70 for this bottle, but it doesn’t pack enough interesting heft to justify that price point and at that age. I’ll go with 3.5. This is highly drinkable, particularly if you’re new to scotch, but try to find it on sale. This is expensive for Texas and we have pretty low taxes on spirits and therefore pay less overall than many markets. Hope this helps. Cheers!