Balvenie

Lost in the shuffle, because these last few weeks have been so busy, was the Balvenie tasting at Good Luck. Let's talk about the whisky first, and then the venue.

Balvenie is often overlooked in a discussion of good malt whisky, but these folks make a very fine highland malt. One interesting thing about Balvenie is that each age statement is made by a slightly different process, so no two Balvenies taste alike. Another interesting thing is that Balvenie is independently owned, apparently still by family members. The guy running the tasting, an ex-pat who now works for the distillery, was proud of the fact that the family business does everything from growing the barley, to bottling the malt. Not only that, but they employ over 140 people, whereas some of the more famous malts (think of the Diageo brands), employ no more than a handful of workers, whose chief responsibility is to monitor the equipment that runs the stills through automation. The measure of any whisky is what it tastes like coming out of the bottle, so perhaps who cares how many people are employed in the process? Still, it's nice to think of whisky as a product made the old-fashioned way.

We started with the 12 year old, known as the "Doublewood", because after 12 years in bourbon casks, the malt spends about a year in sherry casks, so it has that smooth, slightly sweetened, easy drinking character similar to Aberlour 12, or Macallan 12. Next we moved to their 15 year old, single barrel. Most age statements are vattings, mixtures of all the 12 year old barrels that ripened in the year the malt was bottled. That vatting process creates a homogeneous whisky, one that tastes the same, at least for everything put up in a given year. But a bottle of Balvenie's Single Barrel will taste exactly the same as only those few bottles that came from that exact same barrel. The next barrel will have a different taste, and even though the difference may be hard to discern, it's nice to think about drinking a totally distinctive malt -- one that has its own unique characteristics. The 15 is bottled at 47%, so it's not chill filtered.

Next we tasted the 21 year old, Portwood, finished, as you might guess, in port casks. This is a full rich whisky, with a wonderfully long finish, and a good buy for a 21. (I once got a bottle at an in-store tasting for only $75; it was up to $110 at this tasting.) And last of all, we had this year's version of their 17. I guess the deal with the 17 is that each year's production is finished in a different manner, so every year there is a new whisky. The deal this time was Madeira casks, and they gave the malt a light fruity character, reminiscent of a good cognac. Some participants found the 17 too sweet, too soft, on the feminine side. I don't know about that; it's hard to think of any 17 year old highland as feminine. My only beef was the price, about ten bucks more than the 21. It was enjoyable, but not that enjoyable.

Finally, I've got to compliment Ben and the folks at Whitehouse for holding this tasting at Good Luck. Fun spot for a whisky tasting; plus the kitchen sent out four courses of tiny plates during the evening. I had wolfed down the gigantic Good Luck burger just before the tasting, all sixteen ounces worth, so I really didn't need the additional food. But whether I needed it or not became irrelevant. Good Luck's kitchen does a great job for moderate prices, and the fare was far better than the usual crackers or breadsticks one often finds at these events. I told Ben to hold all his tastings at Good Luck, and he didn't argue. I think everyone, the Balvenie guy included, found the venue just about right. And oh yes, Susan had to drive me home again.