Single Malt
Scotland
1 Jan 1983
1 Jan 2011
This Balmenach packs a whopping twenty-seven years of aging in a refill hogshead cask. Balmenach is a distillery that rarely gets the attention it deserves, thankfully Douglas Laing have given it some prominence here.
The Old Malt Cask range began as a release of fifty bottlings in 1998 to commemorate Douglas Laing's fiftieth anniversary. Today they offer many, many more. All bottlings in the range are non-chill filtered and contain no naughty colouring.
The nose opens sweetly with treacle and glazed apple pie leading to richer dried fruits and orange peel.
Barley and cereal notes with the faintest suggestion of smoke form the backbone of this aged Balmenach. Then there are raisins and spice gunning it towards the finish.
The finish is long; after mixed spice there is toffee, barley sugar and creamy grist.
This Balmenach has loads of cerealy notes off-set by fruit and a warming sweetness. Furthermore, this malt possesses good balance that ensures all the flavours play together nicely.
