Balvenie 21 Year Old Single Barrel Cask Str, NOT Portwood

[Sting Ray 67]

I have a bottle of Balvenie 21yr Single Barrel. As is common practice (certified by Balvenie and confirmed by Skinner Auctions in Boston), distilleries often reuse labels. As such, the bottle is labeled 15, as is the tin. Bottle is unopened, and the tin contains all packaging materials, no marks, scratches, or fading. This is not to be confused with the Balvenie 21 Year Old Portwood, as this is a much different animal.

In Cask Date is October 15, 1980
Bottling Date is April 18, 2002
Cask No. 13467
Bottle No. 34

I can provide pictures via e-mail if you respond to this post.

Best offer, and it's yours![/img]
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A fine whisky can be judged with but one sip, but it is always better to be thorough.

[sorren]

Hi there, a couple of questions,
Firstly I take it this bottle is actually a 15 yo single barrel in a 15 yo single barrel but actual age is 21 yo, ? ... And are you saying its re packaged ? ..
Also where are you ? What kind of ballpark figure are you looking at ?
Thanks...

[Sting Ray 67]

Hi Sorren, thanks for the questions!

The In Cask date and the Bottle date show that it is 21 years and 6 months old. Balvenie reused labels and tins from the 15 Year Single Barrel run to list 18 and 21 years. The dates are certified by Balvenie, and as mentioned Skinner Auctions' expert confirmed this practice was common at the time. It's not a repackage, just at the time cheaper and easier to reuse labels. So the label and tin both say 15, but the single malt is definitely 21 years and 6 months.

I'm in the Boston metro area in regards to shipping, etc. A bottle of Portwood 21 Year tends to go for $200 - $220, and this is much different as it has been aged in their traditional casks. Skinners estimated my bottom line after their insurance, shipping, and auction fees totaling around 35% or so could be in the $150 range, which would put a final sale price between $200 and $250. I will entertain most offers, and I'm a reasonable guy, as I do not want to wait the six weeks for their auction.
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A fine whisky can be judged with but one sip, but it is always better to be thorough.

[sorren]

Thanks for reply....
Although I understand what your saying, I think your actually pitching the sale wrong.. This bottle is a 15 yo single malt bottle, I understand it's actually a 21 yo malt inside but where your slightly wrong is it's not a re use of labels, it has been sold as a 15 yo malt because it meets the taste profile of the 15 yo single barrel, it's only my opinion but it should be sold as a 15 yo single barrel that happens to have 21 yo malt inside, you could look at it as you are lucky to have one of the few bottles that have an older malt or you could say the malt was not at a level to be sold as a 21 but only meets the profile of 15 yo.. All that said it is as you say worth a fair bit more than the " old standard 21yo" as I'm in the UK not sure on your price ... I'd expect to be paying around £120-£180 .. There are not many of them around... It would be interesting to see what it made in a good auction... Good luck in your sale, it would be a nice bottle for my collection, but due to you being in the states I'll have to pass.. ..I hope you get what this bottle is worth..

[Sting Ray 67]

Thanks for the extra info, Sorren!

Your UK prices seem to be about right for what I was researching, and what I have been told. I don't mind if a buyer here doesn't offer that much, I'll take less to unload it sooner than six weeks via auction.
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A fine whisky can be judged with but one sip, but it is always better to be thorough.

[William]

When the Balvenie selected casks to be bottled as the Balvenie 15 year old Single Barrel they often selected casks that were older than the 15 years stated on the label and sometimes quite a bit older.

Each of the Balvenie 15 Single Barrel bottling's stated the distillation and bottling date of the whisky, it wasn't uncommon to find 16 or 17 year old whisky in the bottle. Sometimes if you were lucky you would find even older in the bottle, 21 year old is the oldest I have come across that was bottled as 15 year old.

At no time did the Balvenie reuse labels or tins they simply selected single barrels that fell within the desired Balvenie 15 Single Barrel flavour profile they wanted and often the whisky happened to be older than the 15 years age statement on the bottle.
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[sorren]

William probably put it better than I did but that's what I was trying to say lol ...