Balblair Tweet Tasting 5th December, 2013

[bifter]

albo and I last night took part in a Balblair tweet tasting. A week or so back Balblair had tweeted for volunteers and the samples were subsequently mailed out in advance of the tasting. The line up comprised the three new Balblair vintages, 03, 90 and 83. William wrote about these coming up for release some time ago now:

http://www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3631

It was a very enjoyable evening, kicking off at 8pm and carrying on past 9pm. We tried the drams from youngest to oldest.

03 - From good Bourbon barrels, this was young and zesty with fresh mouth-watering flavours - malt, citrus, ginger. Short finish but very moreish and well balanced with no rough edges to speak of. At £40 there are alternatives but the quality is good.

90 - Bourbon-casked with a second-fill Oloroso cask finish. This was my favourite on the night with a lovely balance of sherry and spirit, lots of exotic fruit on the nose and a little herby (eucalyptus for me). I found the taste initially savoury and herby but the fruits quickly take over. Lovely long finish with some nutmeg and cinnamon. Reasonable at £80.

83 - Bourbon barrels again this time. Probably most people's favourite, the age was in evidence right from the off. Shrubby notes (eucalyptus, honeysuckle) at first and plenty of wood. I felt the palate had a little too much damp cardboard about the palate to be great but the complexity was admirable - dried fruits, wood, spices - and the finish never stopped! At £200 I would rather go for the Balblair 75 (a little extra) or the Balvenie Tun 1401 Batch 8. Still a lovely drop and a privilege to try something like this at a free tasting!

Many thanks to Balblair! The tweet thread can be viewed on Twitter under the hashtag #balblairtt
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"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
[George Bernard Shaw]

[albo]

I've written a little about this in the dramming thread.

I thought the prices of the older ones were slightly different price wise though.

A good evening and some v good whisky

[Keith]

I do like the Balblair hopefully they dont start heading down the no age statement road like Old Pulteney has started doing.

[albo]

I'm not sure if this vintage thing they do is not a sightly more subtle way of working with what they have rather than just heading down the NAS route.

This year they have the 03, 90 and 83 released. Next year they could release an 05, 92 and 86 and still get away with the same or higher prices. It's less noticeable when it's not an age specific whisky. I.e. If they bottle a 10 year old and next year it's a 9 year old its much more noticeable. Where are with the vintage range they can say they have stopped the 03 but they have this brand new first release 05 which is the new vintage. Hell even putting vintage on the bottle makes it sound more grandiose.


But at least this way it gives the consumer enough of a hint at what's in the bottle age wise. That said I don't know if they put the bottling date anywhere, there is nothing theoretically to prevent them bottling the 03 in 06 and leaving it in bottles rather than barrels until they sell it and make it look like a 10yo. It would enable them to turn around the barrels much quicker and still look like they are producing 10yo whisky.

I'm not suggesting they are merely thinking out loud.

[Charlie]

I believe the Balblair have done up to 3 releases of some of their vintages meaning some releases can be slightly older