Balblair 34 Year Old James MacArthur

Balblair 1973 Gordon & Macphail Centenary Reserve

To celebrate their 100th anniversary in 1995, the Elgin based bottler Gordon & Macphail released a couple of whiskies under the Centenary Reserve label. I have tried the Mortlach 1984, the Caol Ila 1966 and the St Magdalene 1980. As far as I know there is also the Benrinnes 1978, the Glenburgie 1948 (!), the Glenrothes 1978, the Highland Park...

Score 88/100

Balblair 2005 - 1st Release

The Highland distillery Balblair stopped bottling with an age statement years ago, but now uses vintages (thus mentioning the year of distillation). This Balblair 2005 was released in December 2015 as the successor to the Balblair 2003. It is fair to assume that this is ten years old. Light nose on wilde flowers, vanilla, white chocolate and green...

Score 82/100

Balblair 1997 (2012 ed)

Nose: What a delight : vanilla, sweet honey, pineapple, banana peel , fruit and ginger candy.you can call it fruit salad madness , and you’d be right. so nice. honey, the aromas just scream out there to you, no need to go looking’ bits of lemon curd here and there. truly lovely stuff! when you let it rest you get a bit of charred wood. Fruit noses...

Score 87/100

Balblair 26 Year Old 1965 Cadenheads

This Balblair was one of the discoveries during the Christmas Tasting last year, lead by Michiel Wigman and Jeroen Koetsier. I loved it and left a bit of my sample to retry in the tranquility of my study. Today is the day. By the way: the malt has spent more time in the bottle than it ever did on a cask. Moreover, it was bottled in 1992 which is...

Score 89/100