Balvenie 21 Years Old

Balvenie PortWood 21 is the long-aged Port-finished expression in the Balvenie core range. Drawing on stock matured for twenty-one years in traditional ex-Bourbon casks before transferring to thirty-year-old Port pipes from a single producer for a finishing period, the expression carries Balvenie's classic honeyed Speyside character lifted with dried red fruit, fig and a soft tannic structure from the Port wood. This bottling was released in 2014 at 40% 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.

The ex-Port pipe previously held a fortified Portuguese wine, contributing anthocyanin pigments and residual sugar that interact with the Balvenie spirit during the finishing period. Port-finished single malts typically develop dried cherry, plum and soft tannin character, with a deeper colour drawn from the cask staves. Typical tasting notes include cooked fruit, honey, old wood, citric, cooked vegetable and fragant.