Balvenie – Tun 1509 Batch #5 (70cl, 52.6%)

Balvenie – Tun 1509 Batch #5 is a whisky from Balvenie (Speyside). Bottled at 52.6% 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. Due to the success of The Tun 1401 series, a bigger vat was needed. Tun 1509 is four times the size, and the first release is a combination of 35 American oak barrels and seven European oak sherry butts, left to marry for a few months. Batch #5