Bunnahabhain 40 Year Old, Lidl’s 33 yo, Balvenie Doublewood 17 yo & more…
With a few Whiskies queueing up for a special WhiskyBoys review we decided we needed a little help… so we called upon two of our regular Whisky tasters, Robert Heeps and Neil Buchan, but we thought a few new palates could bring some new ideas to the table, enter John Lamond and Paul McKendrick…
The Whiskies lined up on the cabin table ready for tasting were Lidl’s Highland 33yo, Balvenie DoubleWood 17yo, Balvenie Portwood 21yo and finally Bunnahabhain 40 year old, tasting notes below:
Lild’s 33 year old Highland Single Malt
Nose: penny caramel chews, beeswax, floral, banana, old wood, banana toffee pie, honey, little musky, polished wood
Taste: dried wood, banana toffee, banana ice lolly, spicy, vanilla sweetness, charred
Finish: tingle at the back of the tongue, creamy and mouth coating
Balvenie 17 year old Doublewood
Nose: lemon glyserine, honey, light, acetone, thick cloudy set honey
Taste: cinnamon stick, jaggy spice, nutmeg, lemon tarts, crystalised orange, milk chocolate, malty, rose water
Finish: long, hot, biscuity, chocolate chunk shortbread
Balvenie 21 year old Portwood
Nose: dried orange, tinned strawberries, strawberry syrup, oddfellow sweeties, powder, golden syrup
Taste: ginger spice, thicker almost groupy, Jamican iced ginger cake, burnt sugar, tablet, lavender scent
Finish: bitterness, licqorice, short lived, drying like tonic water
Bunnahabhain 40 year old | 41.5% vol | 750 bottles
Nose: white chocolate, earthy, forrest floor, mild white pepper, strawberry jelly, roast chestnuts, black berries, charred oak
Taste: raspberry ruffle bar, salty, damp jungle, chocolate truffle, truffle dusting, flat coke
Finish: salty, long, creamy, mouth watering, citrus, lemon/orange, long warm fulfilling
4 very different Whiskies, and all VERY enjoyable. The Balvenies, as expected, gave the palate the full onslaught of thick honey and lemon glycerine, the Lidl’s 33yo played true to it’s highland roots and delivered all the key notes that we WANT from that region, the vanilla, spicyness and creamy finish….
BUT the Bunnahabhain 40 year old was outstanding, one of the tasters referred to the dram as “MONUMENTAL“.
We were all expecting something very special from this bottle but what was delivered was above and beyond expectations. Sweet and sugary white chocolate followed by the thick black cherries, coconut and coco powder were crazily complex yet perfectly balanced… WOWWEEEE, but at £2,000.00 a bottle maybe a wee bit out of the WhiskyBoys price range – if you are lucky enough to get a bottle of Bunnahabhain 40 year old well done.
NOTE: We tasted another 4 drams this evening – tasting notes to follow over the next couple of days…
