Little Brown Dog Balblair 12 Year Old (70cl, 56.1%)

This is a 12-year-old Balblair from Little Brown Dog, bottled at a cask strength of 56.1% in a 70cl bottle. It is the bottler's first calvados cask finish, although technically it is an ex-white-port then calvados cask finish. Two 250-litre casks of Balblair were emptied into one small calvados cask, and a good deal evaporated. A little over 18 months there added bright green apple and a champagne-like finish. Distilled on 5 April 2014 and bottled on 6 May 2026, it yielded 290 bottles. It is natural colour and non-chill-filtered. The nose brings fresh lemon, ice cream wafer and green apple. The palate has gooseberry, apple butter and plum crumble, and the finish offers apple skins, dry champagne and green chilli.