As The Balvenie introduces peaty pair Peat Week and Peated Triple cask, we catch up with Sam Simmons, the distillery’s global brand ambassador, to dig down into the developments…
Reel off classic Speyside distilleries and William Grant & Sons’ Balvenie will be near the top of the list. Honeyed with a gamut of stewed fruit and toffee, the brand’s single malts embody the classic Scotch region, the signature profile even shining through the [many] experimental, delicious cask finishes often employed. So imagine our excitement when we learned not one but two peated* Balvenie expressions were set to join the line-up – this was going to be The Balvenie as we’d never tasted it before.
And behold! Just days later we were treated to some samples: Balvenie Peat Week Aged 14 Years (2002 Vintage) and Balvenie Peated Triple Cask Aged 14 Years were in the building in a particularly shiny press pack. Peat Week, matured in 100% American oak casks, will roll out next month (the lucky few are officially the US, UK, Denmark and Sweden), while Peated Triple Cask (first-fill ex-bourbon, refill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry) debuted in travel retail earlier this summer. Both expressions are non-chill filtered and bottled at 48.3% – so far, so intriguing. Both are billed as the results of “experiments” by David Stewart MBE, Balvenie malt master, and Ian Millar, William Grant’s prestige whiskies specialist (and formerly Glenfiddich and Balvenie distillery manager). And after tasting the new liquid (read on for our verdict) we had questions. Lots of questions. It was time to get someone from the distillery on the blower.
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