The Balvenie distillery was built and started running its stills in 1893, on a site just up the hill from the Glenfiddich. Built as a sister project to the world leaders, the site had been producing malt for 100 years until they released a game changer: The Balvenie 12 DoubleWood.
The team had been producing single malts for 20 years at this point but it was the experiments of their malt master David Stewart to “finish” whiskies that had long matured in a single barrel to get a final injection of flavour and texture from its final cask. Finally, the whiskies that have been through this process then all spend a couple of months “marrying” in the large wooden tuns.
The recipe hasn’t changed since, and in its 32 years the name DoubleWood has built up a reputation and brand of its own. How many whiskies on the shop shelves now have finishes?
The Balvenie 12 DoubleWood has spent the vast majority of its time maturing in “traditional whisky oak” barrels (presumably bourbon barrels) before being transferred in to European Oak Sherry casks for its final infusion of flavour. (Believed to be about 9 months).
The final spirit is bottled at 40% ABV after chill-filtration but at its natural colour (largely in part to that final sherry cask influence), and is still readily available in UK supermarkets and whisky specialists alike, currently available around £45-50 per 70cl bottle.
Nose
Dark toffee and caramels, a solid malt and dark fruits like raisins and cherries (it holds back from being full sherry – the balance is there with the sweeter bourbon notes still noticeable) and classic warming Christmas cake spices of cinnamon and clove.
Taste
Vanilla, toffee and cola bottles. Really reminds me of that chocolate and toffee mix you get with toffifee sweets. The oak starts to show it hand with sweet bourbon oak and then the spices start to very slowly build and just simmer with the sweeter influences never outshined.
Finish
A very cocoa-y chocolate pudding coats the mouth with final clove and cinnamon spice flourish tingles away and reveals the final wood influence of the double wood.
Verdict
It is very good and I can see why it has become a staple. It’s balanced. It’s sweet. It’s fruity. It’s got a decent sherry and oaky heft, and that final influence just enhances a decently aged single malt.
For that reason though, it is also at risk of being overlooked. It has become such a mainstay that it has almost become the standard for no nonsense Speyside and sits comfortably alongside its Glenfiddich sister bottlings from down the hill, with a touch more complexity and body to it. If I was going to have one or the other on the shelf then I’d pick The Balvenie, but the units shifted globally suggest that I might be in the minority there! Maybe that’s more to do with the price and longer standing position of Glenfiddich though. It all goes into the family coffers at the end of the day!
I posted about their 14 Caribbean Cask last week and couldn’t believe that is not posted about their flagship single malt so this post is long overdue. The bottle has also been on my shelf for sometime, and maybe that says a lot about it too. When I do get round to it though, it is satisfying to say the least.
M
Dram Disclosure: I bought this bottle out of my own pocket. No promo or agenda. Just an honest, independent, and fair review of the whisky. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.
whisky unplugged 
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