I’ve reviewed one Balmenach expression previously seven years! Such is the rarity of this distillery. House owners Inver Home don’t appear to have plans to launch this extremely distinctive whisky as a single malt, as an alternative preserving it a (extremely valued) element for blends, including a full physique and a real Highlands character.
TWE had a 1988 Signatory Classic launch years in the past, and this Balmenach 1988 lately bottled within the Whisky Sponge collection appears so have the identical origins.
Balmenach 33 yo 1988 (50%, Whisky Sponge 2022, refill hogshead, 211 btl.)
Nostril: a really waxy and greasy begin (sunflower oil, paraffin and pollen), blended with vanilla and hay. Contemporary baguettes. Hints of banana milkshake and stewed yellow apples. Heather honey and candy herbs. Flashes of mango and pineapple come by, in addition to some moist oak. A mode that takes you again to the Seventies and even Nineteen Sixties, glorious to this point.
Mouth: the identical oily, fatty fashion, mixing greasy leather-based with golden apples, dried pear peelings and bananas. Behind it is a spiciness with peppercorns and cinnamon, in addition to a barely yeasty bread observe. Growing drier and barely extra austere, mineral notes in direction of the top. A natural, nearly medicinal edge too.
End: fairly lengthy, taking the mineral notes additional, with a mild bitter edge, some zesty citrus and dried herbs.
A terrific fashion, with a heat fruitiness and beneficiant waxy notes. A terrific instance of this outdated fashion from a novel Highlands distillery. What number of years till one other bottling crosses our path…? Obtainable from Decadent Drinks.
