Balvenie 12 Years Old

Balvenie 12 Years Old at 40% in ex-Bourbon American oak represents the unfinished traditional Balvenie 12, predating the DoubleWood rebrand. Matured for twelve years in refill American oak with no additional finishing period, the expression carries the soft vanilla, honey and citrus character of the Balvenie house style. This bottling was released in 2020 for the European market.

Balvenie was founded in 1892 by William Grant on the same Dufftown estate as Glenfiddich, and remains family owned by William Grant & Sons into its fifth generation. The distillery operates its own floor maltings (supplying around ten to fifteen per cent of its barley from the adjacent Balvenie Mains farm), runs an unusual setup of five wash stills feeding six spirit stills with the distinctive Balvenie Ball on the spirit still necks, and maintains an on-site cooperage.

Ex-Bourbon American white oak (Quercus alba) was charred for the original bourbon fill, breaking down lignin into vanillin and syringaldehyde and releasing whisky lactones from the wood. The fresh-fill bourbon strips the most aggressive oak character, leaving the Balvenie spirit to draw on the secondary layers of soft oak, vanilla and coconut against the distillery's honeyed Speyside profile. Typical tasting notes include cooked mash, chocolate, dried fruit, honey, malt extract and old wood.