Tasting Date: 2021-06-15
Region: Scotch Whisky – Speyside
Type: Single malt
Age Statement: 14 Years
Size: 750ml
ABV: 43% ABV
Cask Type: Aged in traditional whisky oak casks then finished in Caribbean rum casks
Distiller: The Balvenie Distillery Co.
Location: Balvenie Distillery, Dufftown, Keith, Scotland
Bottler: The Balvenie Distillery Co.
Purchase Location: Real Canadian Liquor Store Clareview 4950 – 137Ave NW Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Purchase Date: March 10th 2021
Cost: $88.24 including GST & Deposit
Tasting Notes From The Balvenie Website:
NOSE: Rich, sweet and creamy toffee on the nose combines with fresh fruit notes
TASTE: Rounded with vanilla and sweet oak notes, with a fruity character that develops with time
FINISH: Soft and lingering
Colour: Gold
TransparentSmoke Review: Pouring this I felt like I was Captain William Kidd, Scotland’s most famous pirate. Sailing the Caribbean with the ship’s belly full of stolen Balvenie whisky. Gunfire and cannons shots from our last encounter with the French Vendôme, a 72 gun behemoth, has caused us to tuck tail and run. One of our three masts is badly damaged and we need to find a port somewhere to hole up and fix it.
My first mate is running around mad, he thinks the whisky will be lost if we can’t find a place to hide. We didn’t start out as pirates, in fact we started all this looking to steal from pirates. Years of not finding anything has caused us to have to take chances we probably wouldn’t have, even a few years ago.
Our ship the “Quedagh Merchant” commonly known as the The Adventure Galley, was small in comparison to the Vendôme and we had taken a beating. We have found a secluded cove to hide on the south side of the Dominican Republic near Catalina Island. In the safety of the cove we are moving the barrels of 14 year old Balvenie whiskey to land, many are damaged from the firefight and the men have taken it upon themselves to save as much as possible by moving the whisky to used Caribbean Rum casks. After running the lightened ship aground, it takes nearly 4 months for us to repair the damage and replace the mast.
The boat is rotting because of the moist climate and we need to be on our way. It cost our benefactors £8,000 (£968,571 today) to build and it is rotting after only 4 years. More importantly the rum is running out and I worry the men will start in on the Balvenie next. My personal rum supply ran out days ago and these last couple nights I have had a wee dram of the Balvenie whisky by myself and have discovered something wonderful. The Balvenie had improved, gentle oak smells are accentuated by the sweet flavours of Caribbean rum.
My imagination may have run away with itself. Maybe all that didn’t happen, but most of the details are true. The pirate, the ships, the costs, the locations, and even other brands of Scottish whisky all existed in 1699. The foundation of The Balvenie in 1892 and the subsequent invention of The Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14 Year 312 years later in 2010, was probably just providence.
The nose of this real dram is of faint oak and rum spices over a hint of vanilla. Sweet molasses and rum spice roll over my tongue and I have the faint taste of tea, orange pekoe with honey to be exact. The finish is nice and simple and warms outwardly from the centre of my chest. According to a post at scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk this bottle of The Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14 Year was bottled on August 20 2020. It seems it was made especially for me just three hundred and twenty one years after the moment I was transported to.
Our Score: 79/100
Bottles on Hand: 
The Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14 Year – Tube Front The Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14 Year – Tube Back
