Balmenach 9 Year Old 2002 Provenance Dounglas Laing

Balmenach 24 Year Old 1988 Signatory Vintage

The Cask Strength Collection by Signatory has known releases from almost every single distillery. Including this Balmenach, a rather obscure distillery in Speyside. I will put this hogshead 2794 head-to-head with hogshead 2808 that was bottled especially for the Belgian bottler The Nectar. A very vegetal nose, this Balmenach! Freshly cut grass,...

Score 86/100

Balmenach 10, Duncan Taylor's NC2 Range

Nose: Initially had the character of a chlorine cleaning agent, which I've never experienced in a whisky. Strange. After brief sitting this changes to pear, with perhaps soft strawberry. Taste: Oily in character, and spicy hot, with the sharp burn of red peppers. Finish: Continuing spiciness with some harsh oaky tannins. If I had to try this one...

Score 55/100

Balmenach 1975

Nose: special. A sherry profile but quite different from anything I’ve tasted before. Earthy, with notes of hay and a fern forest. Nuts. Something of soy sauce. Apples. Coffee. Some heather. Rather strange but interesting notes of pine needles! Very complex really. Mouth: oily mouth-feel. Big notes of dried fruits (figs, raisins), candied orange...

Score 90/100

Balmenach 7 Year Old 2013 3006 Whisky

3006 Whisky is a young, Dutch bottler that has pleasantly surprised me in the past – albeit with single grain whisky. So it is possible that this Balmenach, selected by Jop Boer, just might be one that can actually please me. We’ll see. The cask number suggest that this may in fact have been found in the Signatory warehouses. The malt sticks to...

Score 84/100