The Ballantine’s within the cabinet: A assessment of Ballantine’s 21, through a French grocery store, a Greek seashore, and an esoteric pendulum.
Born within the 12 months Beethoven died, Ballantine’s started life in 1827 when George Ballantine – a farmer’s son – arrange a small grocery retailer in Edinburgh. Archibald Ballantine, George’s son, later took over the working of the Edinburgh retailer while George expanded operations to Glasgow. It was from right here that he actually centered on increasing into the spirit commerce and mixing his personal whiskies. A model advertising and marketing blurb means that George Ballantine and Son Ltd, as they had been then identified, even started exporting to India as early because the 1860s.
Whether or not that’s true or not is a little bit of a thriller; I couldn’t discover any supporting proof while researching on-line. However, for me not less than, Ballantine’s has at all times been a little bit of a mysterious model. As an example, is it true that The Best’s iconic sq. bottle design was a product of prohibition-era ingenuity? It’s stated that the sq. bottles slotted extra simply into the suitcases of travelling American salesmen. Was there actually a gaggle of safety geese, led by a “crusty previous gander known as Mr Ballantine,” defending the Dumbarton warehouse within the Sixties? An advert in Life Journal from 1963 actually suggests so. Final however not least: why is it so tough to search out older age statements on the shelf within the UK? The expressions have a well known champion in Jim Murray, as a Ballantine’s has gained “Scottish Mix of the Yr” in 9 of the previous twelve years.
I’m guessing the final level has one thing to do with possession and distribution. Since 2005 Ballantine’s has been a part of French behemoth Pernod Ricard, and it was on vacation in France final 12 months that I unexpectedly discovered a shelf load of “seventeens” in a Dordogne grocery store. Having picked up two bins of the seventeen, every costing €48, I observed a single un-boxed bottle of the twenty-one-year-old (very moderately priced at €98) sitting by itself behind the shelf. It was alone and gathering mud, nearly as if it had been stashed there by somebody to gather at a later date, after which forgotten about.
I picked it up and appeared round to see if anybody was watching earlier than gently slipping it into the procuring trolley. I felt a bit like a thief, maybe a low-rent Sir Charles Lytton, the worldwide playboy/thief generally known as “The Phantom.” By the way, Lytton was performed by David Niven in The Pink Panther… the identical David Niven who briefly labored as a Ballantine’s gross sales rep in post-prohibition Manhattan.
Anyway, I digress. Having purchased all three bottles and carted them house, I drank the seventeens (not all of sudden) and put the twenty-one within the cabinet for a special day. Inevitably – and considerably mockingly – I forgot about it.
It wasn’t till a latest vacation to Greece that I remembered its existence. For causes unknown, I had determined to take Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco’s esoteric basic, as my seashore learn. It’s a guide brimming with cryptic clues, cults, mystical notes and numerology. At one level within the story, throughout a very poignant and complicated passage, a personality (Jacopo Belbo) bets the protagonist (Casaubon) a bottle of Ballantine’s twelve that he can’t “ship the Popelicans” in two weeks.
Having now completed the guide, I’m nonetheless unclear who the Popelicans had been, and whether or not or not they had been delivered. I can verify there was no additional point out of stated Ballantine’s twelve within the story. Anyhow, maybe impressed by the numerological significance of the inverse digits, I instantly recalled my twenty-one patiently ready for me within the cabinet at house.
For the remainder of the vacation, with each night glass of Metaxa, my thoughts was on the Ballantine’s within the cabinet. Now I’m again at house, after a painfully lengthy first week again at work, it’s time to crack it open and see whether or not the lengthy wait has been price it.
Ballantine’s 21 Yr Previous – Overview
40% ABV.
Color: Amber Honey (e150?).
On the nostril: An intense hit of sherry-soaked fruitcake instantly transports you to an idealised picture of Christmas Day night. You may nearly really feel the nice and cozy glow of the imagined fireplace in your cheeks and scent the slight smokiness of burning logs mingling with the creamy vanilla and brandy butter rising out of the glass. Subsequent come the sugary apricots, just like the waft of a freshly flipped (apricot) tarte tatin, blended with figs and wine gums. Then a touch of almonds and extra caramel sweetness as all the pieces comes collectively. I’m briefly overcome by the slight concern that I ought to’ve saved it for one more couple of months, adopted by the realisation that will probably be onerous to search out one other bottle within the UK for Christmas. Shit. It’s a powerfully complicated opening motion and expectations are excessive.
Within the mouth: The anticipated sweetness is current however pared again and far subtler and extra delicate. Nowhere close to the depth on the nostril. In a short time there’s a really pleasing pepperiness that punches by the unctuous mouthfeel, accompanied by liquorice and an indefinite spiciness that’s onerous to pin down. The sweetness remains to be there, rising and falling in concord with the bitter notes because the pepperiness begins to say itself. Lastly, because the mouth begins to tingle, a suggestion of mint disappears nearly as shortly because it arrives.
Conclusions:
A whisky that can endlessly stay in my head as a type of cubist grotesque. A nostril the dimensions of Pinocchio and the 2 faces of Janus, concurrently trying in the direction of the opposing horizons of candy and spice. The one quibble is the 40% ABV – it feels prefer it deserves a bit extra punch.
Nonetheless, Sandy Hislop (solely the fifth Grasp Blender within the firm’s historical past) has introduced all the pieces collectively splendidly properly. All facets working in live performance to create a finely balanced and immensely pleasurable mix of which farmer George – and Beethoven – would have been proud.
Now, can I get again over to France to scour the cabinets of E. Leclerc for one more forgotten bottle earlier than Christmas?
Rating: 8/10
Having finished a little bit of looking out on-line it appears that evidently there’s an actual scarcity of Ballantine’s 21. Of the few retailers with obtainable inventory, the perfect worth I can discover for a substitute bottle is £189.99 at oldandrarewhisky.co.uk
