Balvenie PortWood 12 Years Old 1993

Balvenie PortWood 12 Years Old 1993 is part of the Balvenie core range, a 12 year old single malt matured in American Oak casks from the Dufftown distillery under Malt Master David Stewart's longstanding cask programme. This bottling was released in 2005 for the European market 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.