Balvenie 1972 33 Year Old Cask #14811

Tasting Comments from The World Whiskies Awards 2007

• Dave Broom

  “Hugely complex: perfumed with dried apricot, pear, orange and cinnamon. There’s honey, hazelnut, orange blossom water, spices and light smoke. Intensely concentrated mid-palate with a mass of honeyed red and black fruits, spice, apple. Superb balance and harmony between all the elements. Sweet toffee. Smoke. Proof, if it were needed, that this is a first growth distillery.”

• Annabel Meikle

  “Talcum powder, confection, strawberry jam. To taste it has a quaint old fashioned feel, dry as a tinder box and a wisp of smoke. Afairly feminine dram with layers of perfumed talc lingering on the aftertaste.”

• Martine Nouet

  “Rich and profound. Caramelised fruit, custard, shortcake and a touch of polished floor on the nose. The same delicious sensation of paradise lost with cooked fruit on the palate. This is a superb late afternoon dram to enjoy for a relaxing moment listening to Beethoven’s 7th symphony.”

• Dominic Roskrow

  “Primrose, big bold fruits on the nose. Absolutely dripping with style and class. Everything in perfect balance in the mouth, with oddball blackcurrant mixing with hints of smoke and a captivating fruit and malt two step running through its heart. The finish is long and pleasant.”

• Thierry Benitah

  “A fantastic dram. Plenty of coconut and exotic fruits. Not to be missed.”

Tasting Notes by Dave Broom

• Nose

  Shows real maturity, but with a lifted, elegant rather than woody nose: light dried fruit, resin, sandalwood, hint of varnish and slightly rum-like notes moving into malted milk.

• Palate

  Silky palate mixing honey scented with rosemary, and layered fruits. Very well balanced.

• Finish

  Long, smooth.

• Comment

  This oozes class and, for me, is streets ahead of everything else in this group.

These tasting notes are reproduced from Whisky Magazine No. 58