Balblair 33 Year Old

Balblair 2002 1st Release

Balblair’s claim to fame was the fact that they did not use age statements but vintages on their bottles. But the range was revamped in March 2019 and now it boasts ages on the labels once more. There is a new 12, 15, 18 and even 25 Year Old, all bottled at 46%. The new 25 will set you back some 600 EUR. Ouch. I will try an oldie from 2002,...

Score 82/100

Balblair 2005 - 1st Release

The Highland distillery Balblair stopped bottling with an age statement years ago, but now uses vintages (thus mentioning the year of distillation). This Balblair 2005 was released in December 2015 as the successor to the Balblair 2003. It is fair to assume that this is ten years old. Light nose on wilde flowers, vanilla, white chocolate and green...

Score 82/100

Balblair 1999 - 2nd Release

There have already been two releases of the vintage 1999. They were both composed of the same type of casks (bourbon and sherry), but the first release was for Travel Retail in 1 liter bottles. Strangely enough, that was bottled in 2015, while this second release (in regular 70cl bottles and available at the time for 65 to 70 EUR) was bottled in...

Score 84/100

Balblair 1989

Balblair is one of the oldest operational distilleries in the Highlands, a little to the north of Inverness. It was founded in 1790. After having been handed over several times, the range underwent a complete overhaul in February 2007. There are now three official expressions: the 1979, the 1989 and the 1997 (not counting the duty free...

Score 71/100