Balmenach 1975 Connoisseurs Choice Gordon & Macphail

Balmenach 18 Year Old Deerstalker

Balmenach does not have any official bottlings (bar the Flora & Fauna) and is only bottled by Deerstalker. There is a 10 and 12 year old, but we are lucky enough to try the 18 year old. It matured on a sherry cask. Balmenach closed in 1993, but in 1997 Inver House Distillers reopened it. They also produce gin since 2009. The nose is a weird...

Score 80/100

Balmenach 8 Year Old 2008 Connoisseurs Choice

I must confess, the last time I tasted a Balmenach was when I released my own Save Lars Whisky over a year ago. This youngling from 2008 is a vatting of one sherry and several bourbon casks and bottled under the Connoisseur Choice label from Gordon & Macphail. The nose is both sweet and mildly sour, which does not seem to work well. It has a...

Score 79/100

Balmenach SMWS 48.88 - Mimosa growing in chalky soil

Seldom will you come across a bottling of Balmenach. Licensed in 1824, this Speyside distillery was sold to DCL 100 years later, remaining in constant production until 1993. A 12-year-old became part of the Flora & Fauna range, but to my knowledge that is the only known distillery bottling. In 1997 it was sold to Inver House, who remain the...

Score 82/100

Balmenach 24 Year Old 1988 Signatory Vintage

The Cask Strength Collection by Signatory has known releases from almost every single distillery. Including this Balmenach, a rather obscure distillery in Speyside. I will put this hogshead 2794 head-to-head with hogshead 2808 that was bottled especially for the Belgian bottler The Nectar. A very vegetal nose, this Balmenach! Freshly cut grass,...

Score 86/100