Balvenie – 10 Year Old Founder’s Reserve (70cl, 40%)

Balvenie – 10 Year Old Founder’s Reserve is a whisky from Balvenie (Speyside). Aged 10 years, bottled at 40% ABV, 70cl. Built by the Grant family in Dufftown, and situated next door to sister distillery Glenfiddich, Balvenie is at the heart of Grant’s range of blends. Despite their proximity and shared water source, the style of spirit produced by the pair are quite different, with Balvenie producing a sweeter, more honeyed and very lightly peated new make spirit. It wasn’t until 1990, when Kininvie distillery was able to shoulder some of the responsibility for blending stock production, that Balvenie was really able to push forward as a single malt. The distillery quickly distinguished itself through use of innovative maturation processes, and was a pioneer of cask “finishing” with the introduction of it’s DoubleWood expression in 1993. Balvenie is also one of the few remaining distilleries still using on site maltings, although today this only meets a small percentage of its requirements. The Founder’s Reserve was first launched in the early 1980s, originally packaged in the now iconic cognac style bottles. This is a later release in the more familiar Balvenie livery. Hugely popular in its time, this former cornerstone of the Balvenie core range was discontinued in 2009. Please note minor rusting to tin lid and tube inner Please examine the images of the bottle.