Balvenie’s David Stewart was one of the first distillers to experiment with cask finishing, giving a mature whisky a second ageing period in a different cask type. In 1983 he created Balvenie Classic , which was rebranded in 1993 as Balvenie DoubleWood . Nowadays cask finishing is all over the market but it’s fairly new nonetheless.

Since 2012 the normal 12 years old version has an older sibling: Balvenie DoubleWood 17 Years . Matured in American oak ex-bourbon casks and later in European oak sherry casks.

Balvenie 17 yo DoubleWood (43%, OB +/- 2017)

Nose: very fresh and...