Balvenie 21 Year Old Port Wood Finish

Many months ago I heard about a very sexy Speyside whisky from a good whisky friend, Victor. That this whisky was a top notch beautiful, fragrant, flavorful, second to none whisky.

This whisky was Balvenie's 21 yr old Port wood finish.

The only problem was that only a few places in Australia sold it, and it was always around the $250 mark.

Just a wee bit of money to spend on a bottle without having sampled it before hand.

However I found that I would be able to bring it in myself for a little over half the price. Not a bad deal.

I decided to go with that option, along with bringing in another whisky that I'd heard nothing, but good things about.

Glenmorangie Sonnalta PX.

On my shelf these two whiskies have sat.

For almost a year.

Awaiting a special occasion worthy of cracking them open.

However no occasion occurred that seemed worthy of such whiskies.

Then recently a member on Connosr, lost their beloved partner of 10 years. They'd decided to treat themselves to a special bottle in memory of this loved one.

From the whisky community came an outpouring of support, condolences and well wishes.

Drams, many special, were raised in this person's support and their partner's memory.

I was like many and cracked open a special bottle for this occasion. Thinking of my beloved grandmother who passed away the year I moved to Australia I cracked open the Balvenie 21 yr old Port Wood.

Beautiful sexy bottle concealed in a very nice looking tube. Dark gorgeous liquid inside sexy beautiful bottle.

But that's not why we buy whisky, for the bottle, but for that beautiful nectar inside.

So I sit down to dinner thinking about new friends and old friends as I pour the Balvenie into it's glencairn.

I nose the glencairn over the course of dinner, not taking any sips or anything, just enjoying the intoxicating aromas off this whisky.

You can easily tell the wine influence on this whisky, the port, strong aromas of spices, cinnamon and nutmeg, sultanas, raisins, hints of vanilla. Very beautiful.

When I finally take a sip the flavors follow quite closely the nose with the addition of cocoa on the palate. Once more the wine influence is easily seen.

Even though this whisky sits at 40%abv it has a very nice mouth feel to it, one that coats the mouth. At times it does feel thin, but it's not to the point where it bugs me, it's more like I would have loved to have seen this whisky coming in at 46% or thereabouts.

Finish is sweet with the wine once again making itself known, but with the cocoa and vanilla doing a little interplay with one another.

A very lovely whisky, one easily worth the $250 or so AUS that it runs at. It's not the world's most complex whisky, but it's what I call one of those "feel good whiskies"

If you get a chance to try this lovely little gem, do so. You won't regret it!

Find where to buy Balvenie whisky