Very occasionally, David Stewart (MBE), the master distiller at Balvenie, will scour the oldest reserves of Balvenie’s extensive warehouses. David has worked at the distillery for over 54 years, and in that time has mastered every aspect of producing single malt Scotch whisky of the very highest quality. There is perhaps no one person in the industry who is better placed to decide which single barrel whiskies to bottle. Each of these very special barrels is known as a “Vintage Cask”, and bears the year in which it was distilled and laid down. Balvenie believe that these casks are a rarity in that they actually continue to improve in quality far beyond the norm. The upmost care is taken over these whiskies, with them being hand bottled and labeled.

This 1976 32 year old is a wonderful example of how good this range and this distillery can be. It showcases all of Balvenie’s fantastic, sweet, honeyed flavours to the maximum, with a glorious glissando of colour, aroma, flavour and finish. This is a whisky that truly demonstrates perfect balance between malt, spirit and cask. On the nose, thunderous dark oak is perfectly integrated with a dense, malty toffee note, joined by vanilla fudge, sweet citrus peel, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and maple syrup. The palate is silky smooth, with a chewy and rich mouthfeel. Here some floral flavours emerge, alongside apple pie notes, woodspice and honeyed oak. The finish is supple and gentle, but lingers for an extraordinarily long time, with lasting vanilla, apple and woodspice flavours.

This is a single cask whisky, bottled at a cask strength of 52.7% ABV, free from chill filtration or colouration. There were only 231 bottles of this whisky released, and chances to buy Balvenie of this age are incredibly rare. As a single cask whisky, once this is gone, it’s gone for good. Drinkers should move fast if they want to try this superb, once in a life-time whisky.

• Product type
  Single Malt
• Distillery / brand
  Balvenie
• Country
  Scotland
• Region
  Speyside
• Bottler
  Distillery Bottling
• Distillation date
  18th of June 1976
• Bottling date
  27th of March 2008
• Age
  32 years old
• Non-chillfiltered
  Yes
• Natural colour
  Yes
• SKU
  026238