Balvenie 17 Years Old

Balvenie DoubleWood 17 is the premium step-up from the original DoubleWood 12, applying the same Oloroso finishing principle to longer-aged stock. Matured for seventeen years in traditional refill American oak before a finishing period in first-fill Oloroso sherry butts, the expression carries a richer, more concentrated profile than its younger sibling. This bottling was released in 2013 at 43% 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 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.

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. Typical tasting notes include honey, new wood, vanilla, cooked vegetable, dried fruit and sherried.