Not surprisingly, the single bottle of the recently released 50 year old – which celebrates the 50 years that Malt Master David Stewart has worked for the distillery – that has made it to Asia was not available for tasting. The Scot in me puts that down to its price tag of HK$250,000. I remain hopeful that the publisher had not, at that point, decided on my Christmas bonus.
Restricted by the editor’s all consuming desire for brevity, I shall comment only briefly on the sampled malts. The Doublewood is created from the waters of the Robbie Dubh Springs, unpeated and aged in sherry and bourbon casks. The traditional production process has produced an absolute gem of single malt. Although, close in geographical provenance and under the same ownership as the Glenfiddich, they are at best kissing cousins and instantly distinguishable. This expression has a surprisingly sweet nose with no overpowering alcohol, a spicy and still sweet taste and a really long finish. While its pricing in Hong Kong has yet to be confirmed, it retails at about £30 (HK$375) in the UK and is an absolute bargain.
Of the three other expressions, my favourite by a considerable distance was the 15 year old single cask expression. A slight danger with that is that the product being from a single cask of a single distillation is not entirely homogenous.
Each cask produces a maximum of 350 bottles and there cannot fail to be small, subtle differences between each. The skill of David Stewart is such that this expression receives continuous high marks in tastings. Slightly more alcoholic, bottled at 47.8 per cent ABV, this benefits from a splash of water. It is not as sweet as the 12 year old but has a marvelous combination of oak and spice flavours at its heart that lingers in a long dry finish. The two older expressions had much to recommend them and the publisher was very keen on the 21 year old.
The 15 year old remains my choice however – it is one of best that I have sampled this century – and is much more likely to feature in the publisher’s Christmas bonus package than the 50 year old. If that is the case, I may have finally (courtesy of The Balvenie) have had a good Monday.
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