Review by: dustbunna
Completing the trio of Balblair 2006/2019 13yr single casks I picked up in the past few years. This one is cask #690, which like #445 was another private first-fill ex-bourbon cask bottled for Gordon’s Fine Wines in the Boston area. Why they chose to get two casks with near-identical specs and sell them side by side, I have no idea… but I enjoyed the first one I purchased, and got really curious about this other one as well.
Distillery: Balblair.
Bottler: Distillery bottling.
Region: Highlands.
ABV: 57.2%. Cask strength.
Age: 13 years. Distilled in 2006. Bottled in 2019.
Cask type: First-fill ex-bourbon barrel.
Price: $85 USD.
Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.
Bottle open across approx. 5 months, notes taken leisurely across that period. Bold notes taken beneath the shoulder, regular-formatted notes taken further into the bottle past the halfway point, italicized notes taken towards the heel.
Nose: floral up front, sake, wood spice, liquorice candy, chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve, pencil shavings, melon, a grassy note in the background.
Palate: medium body ~ hot on arrival, cedar, chocolate coins, hay, flowers and cut stems, grass, pepper, sour candy, a bit lactic.
Finish: long ~ more cedar, vanilla and chocolate, sake from the nose follows through, more grass and pepper, grocery store white cake.
Conclusion: This one, while perfectly drinkable, unfortunately does not quite rise to where the other Gordon’s cask ultimately settled. It drinks somewhat hot, like all of these Balblair single casks, but water accentuates the grassiness and pepper rather than bringing out esters and floral notes as it did on #445. The mouthfeel is nice, the flavors are bold and engaging, but it doesn’t quite hang together as a cohesive whole. Still not a bad whisky to have gone through, however.
Ranking: #445 first-fill ex-bourbon > #76 first-fill Montilla Oloroso > #690 first-fill ex-bourbon
Admittedly, in a perfect world I would have opened them all together and kept them open the same amount of time, but there’s only so much I’m willing to do for science. As it stands, one of my takeaways is that Balblair may actually have more to offer at a lower ABV than cask strength; the addition of water and time were both valuable for the two better single casks, and maybe if I had them all open for a year or so I might notice further improvement.
Final Score: 79.
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.
Malt Runners 