- Raided Score: 92
- Publication: WhiskyCast
- Excerpt: The taste is very smooth with mild spices, a touch of cinnamon, honey, and a hint of coconut. The finish is full of honey, coconut, and allspice.
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- Raided Score: 89
- Publication: Distiller
- Excerpt: The Balvenie have done well here. Tropical fruits, vanilla, and honey are present, but it isn't intensely molasses or funky.
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- Raided Score: 96
- Publication: The Whiskey Wash
- Excerpt: In keeping with the Speyside style, this single malt is grassy and rich without being overly smoky or peaty. The rum-cask finish, then, brings a touch of sweetness and vanilla to the proceedings. Even my wife, not much of a whisky drinker, likes this whisky.
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- Raided Score: 84
- Publication: whiskyfun
- Excerpt: Liked the palate quite a lot, the nose was more… What was it again?
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- Raided Score: 91
- Publication: Drinkhacker
- Excerpt: You get rum right off the bat, a big caramel nose that also invokes coconuts. The body is coating, sweet, and lush.
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- Raided Score: 84
- Publication: Modern Thirst
- Excerpt: A nice scotch to introduce to a bourbon drinker. It has a "Peaceful Easy Feeling" - a touch of bourbon sweetness from the rum casks. It won’t let you down.
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- Raided Score: 92
- Publication: Wine Enthusiast
- Excerpt: The end result layers rich, mouth-coating dried apricot, honey and Sherry notes on top of Balvenie's usual caramel and light peat profile.
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- Raided Score: 90
- Publication: Whiskey Raiders
- Excerpt: I imagine this more as a dessert, after dinner dram and this nose backs that up fully.
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- Raided Score: 89
- Publication: Whiskey Advocate
- Excerpt: I really like the balance and complexity of this whisky. A very solid effort and the price is right.
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Raided Score is a conversion from an external site's score, to our in house uniform scoring system. Please see the FAQ for more.
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Intro:
This is an expression from The Balvenie that sees finishing time in a rum cask.
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Nose:
Vanilla, so so much vanilla. Theres also sugar and some caramel wood notes, but the vanilla here is the frontrunner. Its not massively powerful, I dont pick it up and think "creme brulee" but theres magnitudes more vanilla than the other notes and its very inviting. I imagine this more as a dessert, after dinner dram and this nose backs that up fully.
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Taste:
This is a bit spicier than the 12, but theres also more sweetness. The mouth feel is a bit thinner, but the sweetness comes in a bit quicker as well. I wouldnt be able to pick this out as a rum matured scotch blind, I dont think, but the vanilla and sugar are there to guide you into questioning what kind of scotch this truly is. Its not ordinary, thats for sure. And theres something different about it, also for sure.
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Finish:
Its a bit longer, and theres more spice but Im glad its there. Without, this would be a sugar overload, but the spice is there to round it out and remind you that drinking more than a dram or two of this wouldnt be a good dessert - itd be a disaster. Its complex and well rounded, and while its a reach for the price, I still dont regret buying a bottle for my shelf.
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Overall:
It's a bit pricier than the 12, and there's a measure of complexity more but I don't see this as an everyday dram. You need to be in the mood for it, but when the time is right, this is downright delicious.
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Score:
6
- Our in house critic rates spirits on a scale of 0-10 (10 best) and is aggregated the same as external sources