Balvenie 14 Year The Week of Peat

Review by: The Muskox

This peated bottling from Balvenie appeared in 2019 and seemed to be poised to just be a rebranding of the popular Peat Week release as a yearly special edition. As far as I can tell, however, there haven’t been any new editions of this whisky since then… what gives?

Distillery: Balvenie.

Bottler: Official bottling.

Region: Speyside.

ABV: 48.3%.

Age: 14 years old. Bottled in 2019.

Color: Light gold. Colour added, un-chillfiltered.

Nose: Sweet-tart peat. The peat is actually fairly briny and acrid, but it’s glazed in honeyed sweetness – ripe orchard fruit (apple, pear, peach), citrus jellies, clover honey, cream soda (or a whole soda fountain), and orange blossoms. On the other hand, there are still rich peaty notes of seawater, birch-fueled campfire, stewed pork with sage, some eucalyptus.

Palate: Medium-thick texture. Arrives with… breakfast! Orange juice, pancakes with maple syrup, honey-drizzled granola, crispy bacon, and slightly burnt toast. Mouthwatering sweet woodsmoke on the development. Rich butterscotch, baking spices, toasted coconut, and cola. A little bit of bitter ash, charred oak, and worn leather, along with more sweet honey.

Finish: Medium-long. S’mores over a winter campfire. Chocolate orange, beeswax, ginger chews, and muscat grapes. Lingering sooty smoke, camphor, honey, and spicy ginger.

Possible SMWS bottling name: “Mother’s Day campsite breakfast”

Notes: A mellow but respectable peated offering. It does what it says on the tin – there’s all the honey sweetness of normal Balvenie, just with peat. Comparing it to the travel-retail-exclusive 14yo Peated Triple Cask, I think this whisky is peatier but maybe a bit less complex – more casks is more better, just ask Jura! For assigning a possible SMWS bottling name, I was stuck somewhere between the coziness of breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day, and waking up to a campfire breakfast on a sunny-but-still-a-bit-chilly canoe trip morning. In either case, somebody’s gonna burn the toast a bit.

Final Score: 81.

Scoring Legend:

  • 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
  • 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
  • 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
  • 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
  • 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
  • 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
  • 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
  • 50-59: Save it for mixing.
  • 0-49: Blech.

Leave a comment