“Sideburn” (Balvenie) 31 Year (1993) WhiskySponge

Review by: zSolaris

Distillery: “Sideburn”, teaspooned Balvenie.

Bottler: WhiskySponge.

Region: Speyside.

Age: 31 year. Casks distilled in 1992 and 1993. Bottled in 2024.

Cask Type: 1992 2nd Fill Barrel and 1993 1st Fill Barrel.

ABV: 51.4%.

Price: Courtesy of /u/_asipper.

Color: 1.2, Chestnut/Oloroso Sherry.

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Nose: Honey, honey, some more honey, honey, and a berry mix are really what come up. There’s a little bit of lemon zest as well.

Palate: Very much as the nose suggests, this is an absolute honey bomb. There’s a bit of earthiness as well which reminds me a lot of biting into honeycomb but without any of the waxy bits. There’s a red berry mix to go along with the honey with raspberries in particular popping out. Adding some water turns down the temperature a little bit but the flavor profile really remains the same.

Finish: Quite long and quite sweet. It really reminds me of the aftertaste after sucking honey out of one of those little honey straws. There’s a bit of lemongrass and a bit of green apple. After adding water, the lemongrass and green apple really take over.

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Conclusion: It has been a while since I’ve had and reviewed a Balvenie. My experiences with the distillery can really be summed up as “almost always pretty good but never excellent” and this well aged Balvenie from WhiskySponge is more of the same there. Don’t get me wrong, this is quite tasty. If you like honey, you’ll love this since it tastes so heavily of honey from start to finish. It is, however, rather one-dimensional here and I’d really expect and hope for a lot more depth and complexity from something like this.

Rating: 83 (100/100 if you’re Winnie the Pooh).

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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.