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Ballantine's 17yo
Blended Scotch Whisky
43% abv
£45
$100 (USD)
Happy Ballantine's Day!
Have received some very sweet emails of encouragement in Dr. Whisky's absence (hasn't been a post here since Jan 19!), so I thank you all. I promise to try some interesting drops in the coming days and share them with you and hope it makes up for my lack of consistent posting.
So I come back with a bottle poured at our wedding whisky bar, a blend from a company that has re-focused their approach to market in the wake of diminishing sales in recent years. I have posted in the past about how much I enjoy this family of blends and wish them the best of luck in the complicated blended whisky market that single malt nerdom and a splash of economic downturn has created. Since the late fifties when this whisky was #1 in the USA, Ballantine's has slipped position and focused more in Europe and the Far East. It has always been held in high regard by the Dr., especially at mature ages.
For all Ballantine's had on the mission, click HERE.
TASTING NOTES:
Fresh and appetising. Red plums and apples, vanilla and white wine. Chestnuts over a mineral note, salt and a touch of soot.
Starts with a gentle puff of smoke followed by a rich and creamy mid-palate with raspberries and vanilla yogurt. Spices emerge and each sip becomes a wondefully well-integrated mouthful of whisky happiness. Really hitting the spot for me today.
SUMMARY:
With a touch of alcohol prickle in the nose, time in the glass or a generous cut of water really opens this puppy up where a fresh fruitiness intermingles with earthy coastal elements. The palate only delivers more of the latter in the lead with a creamy baked fruit complexity making this blend so enjoyable. Cinnamon and burnt sugar add a dessert element that gives final evidence of the quality of blending at the world's #3 blending house.
Malt Mission #331
Malt Mission #332
Malt Mission #334
Malt Mission #335
Malt Mission HOME
Ballantines 21 yo
Blended Scotch Whisky
43% abv
£80
$168.55(CAD)*
$110(USD)**
Happy Friday.
For background info on Ballantine's blending family and history, see my post for Ballantines Finest (Malt Mission #66). Today, having this classic premium blend makes me want to type about a few other things that might be of interest to some of you: the premiumisation trend and the sad loss of Dumbarton grain distillery(traditionally the grain heart of Ballantines)
The BRIC nations(Brazil, Russia, India and China) are at the core of a new economic optimism in the whisky world, the kind of which has not been seen for decades. The increasing affluence of these populations have created an emerging middle class that wants "the best, and are prepared to pay for it," to quote Ian Buxton in Whisky Magazine (Issue 67, p17). Luxury is the key of the day for those fortunate enough to not only have clean water to drink, but to have clean water to put into their £1000 drams. This small percentage of the market is putting an increased demand on the maturing whisky supplies of Scottish distillers and creating new frontiers for the brand wars.
For some time now Johnnie Walker Blue has been the symbol of whisky luxury, THE premium brand whisky, and in recent years EVERYONE has come out with new premium product to compete: Cutty Sark 25, Dewar's Signature, Chivas Royal Salute and the new 25yo, etc. One reads of Johnnie Walker King George V and 1905 blends. Crown Royal XO and No. 16. Whyte & Mackay 40yo. Royal Salute 38 and Coronation Cask (50yo). Crystal decanters, swords, necklaces and silver cups accompany many of these ultra-premium expressions.
Ballantines seems to have avoided this ornament and cash cropping. Their premium blends (which have been around for decades) have always come in simplest of packages, winning awards and loyal long-term drinkers. No oak boxes or accompanying gauntlets, the 30yo was even sealed with a screwcap the last (and only) time I had it.
Put as many velvet bags and mahogany boxes around my bottle of whisky as you like, it makes it no less a trophy for the rich. Whisky is to be consumed, not hunted, shot, and hung on the wall. And for the industry to be nurturing this gluttonous malt-hunting is greedy and, some would say, short-sighted. It seems certain that it will come back to bite them in their arses later if not sooner. With every boom in the history of the industry there has been a subsequent bust. Now, with millions of pounds being dumped (prematurely?) into silly new user-unfriendly websites, new bottling plants, and new distilleries, the increasingly worrying question to those of us who care about the long-term sustainability of Scotland's national drink is not "WILL there be a bust?", the question is "WHEN?"
Forget Dumbarton today. I will type about that lost distillery some other time.
* - discontinued at LCBO
** - or more. or less (Freedom)
TASTING NOTES:
Artificial grape, grape gum or something, or medicinal grape! like chewable Tylenol for kids? Soft, toffeed and round. Strawberry yoghurt, vanilla with a backbone of oak, and some smoke. Fennel, citrus vitamin C tablets.
Big and deep, cigar smoke, dust, and a rich, pleasant bitterness. Long woody finish with tobacco, kiwi fruit, and citrus. Leather and oak in the finish.
SUMMARY:
Powerful with great depth. A full circle of flavour without being robust. The citrus tang is kept in check with fruit, malt and vanilla, with a pleasant oaky bitterness to add balance. A whisky that sensually weaves flavours through your gums and around your tongue. Classy blending.
Malt Mission #221
Malt Mission #222
Malt Mission #223
Malt Mission #224
Malt Mission HOME
Ballantine's Finest
Blended Scotch Whisky
43% abv
£20
$23.65(CAD)
$17(USD)
Ballantines has a great history in Edinburgh. George Ballantine set up a grocery in the Cowgate. He dealt in whisky (not blended) as well as tea, wine, produce, etc. For those of you who know Edinburgh, it is interesting to note that his business quite literally moved up-market, moving shop from the Cowgate up to Candlemaker Row, and then up to South Bridge.
By 1922, the Ballantine family sold their interests in the company and the blend reached new heights. Greatly benefiting from smuggling via Nassau or Canada during prohibition, Hiram Walker-Gooderham and Worts of Canada bought the blend and to ensure supplies for the future, invested in whisky distilleries in Scotland. They were very short on supplies, especially of Scottish grain whisky. Could this be the era when Canadian whisky companies lobbied the government to introduce laws requiring the addition of a percentage of domestic spirits to Scottish ones (see Malt Mission #59 and #60) ?
Hiram Walker founded Dumbarton Grain Distillery in 1938, one of the largest distilleries in Scotland and, for a time, the largest grain distillery. The distillery is said to have used a rather unorthodox security force, "The Scotch Watch". Formed in 1959 by Tom Scott, originally it consisted of five geese plus a gander(named Mr Ballantine) and by 2001 the flock had grown to about 100 birds. Most of them were Chinese geese, but the regiment also counts a few European geese among its ranks of excellent guards.
An absolute testament to blender's craft, in an age when the trend is towards fewer constituent parts in blends, Ballantine's Finest is said to include at least 57 malts. The main malts in Ballantine's are Glenburgie and Miltonduff, but it is said to include or have included Ardbeg, Balblair, Balmenach, Glencadam, Glentauchers, Inverleven, Imperial, Laphroaig, Old Pultney, Scapa, and Tormore. The grain used to be Dumbarton(closed in 2002). I am not certain from where the grain component is coming today.
For an informative piece on Ballantine's, see Gavin D. Smith & Tom Cannavan's Whisky Pages
TASTING NOTES:
Nose impressions are light and airy but with denisty of peach, oats, and floral/perfumy aromas. Vanilla, peaches and cream or maple and brown sugar flavoured instant oatmeal. Overall, a very malty nose with little hint of oak or smoke. Clean and appetising, if not a bit too sweet.
Sour first impression. Syrupy sweetness with none of the fruity impressions at which the nose hinted. Raw corn. Has an almost mentholic or medicinal quality. Grainy and oaty. Dry finish of oat cakes and stilton.
SUMMARY:
I am tasting from a miniature and have a feeling that, based on the almost rotten sour notes that lead on the palate, I may have a bum bottle. Apologies. I will try this again at a later date to verify one way or the other.Malt Mission #65
Malt Mission #67
Malt Mission #68
Malt Mission #69
Malt Mission #70
Malt Mission HOME
Ballantines 12yo
Pure Malt
40% abv
$35 (USD)
Was in Washington, DC for a conference until Sunday evening. Really enjoyed the city and was again charmed by the generous kindness of Americans. A city worth re-visiting and, having lived in Ottawa (capital of Canada), I couldnt help but feel envious of the sense of pride and importance the city seems to hold for itself, and ashamed that we no longer have free museums in our capital city.
Visited the Library of Congress, some Smithsonian buildings, and the Holocaust Museum and was deeply impressed by all. Was a guest at the Canadian Embassy where we met Hon. Michael Wilson and were thoroughly blown away by the beautiful design of the building, inside and out.
Popped into a few pubs and bars and although the beer selection and design of the establishments were very cool, my overall experience was negative. I suppose I have become accustomed to the British style of ordering at the bar, not tipping etc. I felt isolated in that I couldn't sit at the bar and was forced to sit alone at a table cuz that is just the way things are done, and found the pressure by pricing to tip over 20% quite intimidating and unfair.
But I was amazed at the selection of bottles in the average wine and spirits shop. It is amazing how many blended whiskies are not avaialble in the UK (Ballantines 12 Pure Malt, Campbeltown Loch 25, Buchanan's 12) and I was determined to take advantage. Obviously, I couldn't leave duty free empty handed.
This week I will try one of the whiskies from my US visit, a few from the tasting tower at Summerhill LCBO, and will share notes from a cask-strength tasting I am hosting with friends here in Toronto on Saturday.
TASTING NOTES:
Woodsy, earthy like a damp forest. Fresh, green aromas against dark, dirty, decomposing ones. Acidic but soft sweetness, like apple cider with some suntan lotion jojoba or something. With time in the glass, several minutes, smoke emerges.
Bitter like freshly torn bark or a bending and breaking a young sapling, with a sherried toastiness that follows. Some grapefruit citric bitterness and plenty of oak influence. Finish is quite long with a nuttiness added to the firm oakiness. All in all seems quite restrained, but suited for a few successive servings and good conversation.
SUMMARY:
This is real old man 'scotch'. I rarely use that term, but it wholly applies here. It is oaky, firm and even strong in its bitter assertiveness, but somehow mellowed overall in its balancing of elements. Seems to be pulling its punches but making you well aware of its potential power.
North American Adventure #2
North American Adventure #3
North American Adventure #4
North American Adventure #5
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