A new distillery by that ridiculous name? (single cask after all) . Not quite. but more of a little funny name for a superb dram. The name is the outcome of a spooning procedure this cask has undergone. I was not really aware of this, but when I asked around, it seems it’s not something out of the ordinary. Say you are a distillery and you sell a cask to an Indie bottler but want to make sure he can not sell it as distillery X single malt , ok? What you do is taker a wee portion of another single malt from a different distillery, and pour it into the cask. essentially this is no longer a single malt whisky, but a blended malt whisky, and as such can not be ladled as single cask. This is what was done here. Spooned or not, this one is lovely stuff, and by any name. Bally sounds like the sounds of Balvenie, and maybe this was the source of this cask, but no further info is given.
Bally Delicious 23 Year Old – Single Cask MoM 54%, £59.95
Nose : apples and pear crumble with some plum jam on top and vanilla ice cream on the side. With time getting less sweet and fruity.
Palate : delicious as the name implies. Sweet and spicy entry. Chocolate cake. Apple tart. Wood and a pinch of pepper and clove. Adding a bit of water brings out even more sweet prunes and caramel.
Finish : bitter oak. Dark chocolate.and a touch o double espresso with bitter caramel.
A lovely lovely cask. Really delicious, creamy, sweet, and leaves you wanting more more and more. Really dig it. I think I shall get me one of those. Very good pricing for this one, once again.
Score : 89/100
Official sample provided by MoM
It is Balvenie. The little databox on the Master of Malt page states the distillery name.
Yes, Eric. It is, and it’s bloody amazing. did you get a bottle? be quick.
I’d have loved to get a bottle except I blew the budget on a bottle of Rosebank 2011 Special Release and a bottle of Midleton Barry Crockett Legacy.
In fact I wonder if Midleton will continue make more of Barry Crockett Legacy now that the man has retired?