Balvenie 21 Years Old 1979 (Authentic Collection)

A 21 year old Balvenie single malt released under an independent merchant. Independent Balvenie bottlings are rare given William Grant & Sons' historical reluctance to release casks beyond the distillery's own programme. This release was bottled by William Cadenhead, established in Aberdeen in 1842 and the oldest independent bottler in Scotland. Owned by J & A Mitchell of Springbank, Cadenhead's bottles at cask strength without colouring or chill-filtration. The release was distilled in 1979 and bottled in 2001, with a small outturn of 264 bottles, for the Italian market, at 56.1% 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.

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.