Balvenie 16 Years Old

Balvenie 16 Years Old is the French Oak release in the Balvenie Stories range, matured initially in traditional refill American oak before finishing in French oak (Quercus petraea) casks selected by David Stewart for the project. This bottling was released in 2023, as an event-exclusive bottling, at 47.6% ABV.

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 is one of only a handful in Scotland still operating its own floor maltings, supplying around ten to fifteen per cent of its barley from the adjacent Balvenie Mains farm. Production runs on a single lauter mash tun, a mixed wash back fleet of Douglas fir and stainless steel on 65 to 68 hour fermentations, and an unusual setup of five wash stills feeding six spirit stills. The spirit stills carry the distinctive Balvenie Ball, a bulb on the neck that increases reflux and pushes the new make toward the honeyed, ester-rich profile the distillery is known for.

American oak (Quercus alba) is high in whisky lactones (cis- and trans-beta-methyl-gamma-octalactone) and breaks down under charring to release vanillin and syringaldehyde from the lignin. The expression draws coconut, vanilla and honeyed sweetness from the oak against the Balvenie spirit's natural ester-rich character.