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Balvenie 14 Week of Peat Story No. 2

Writer's picture: S&PS&P

Sean's moving to Thunder Bay next week. For those not familiar with Ontario geography that's a 15-16 hour drive for the other boys in Southern Ontario. So we'll be seeing a lot less of him, in person anyway.


To see him on his way we meet tonight to split our round 3 scotches, and drink some Balvenie 12 Week of Peat with a sirloin steak and a tasty Villiger cigar.


We sniff around.


The nose is mostly about a soft earthy peat. Very nice.


There's an underlying salinity and sweetness as well.


Scott gets a little tanginess. He's tempted to call it citrus.


We cheers.


Salty sour comes out first. Some unusual flavors for Balvenies.


Decent heat.


Sweetness and earthy woody peat comes through on the second sip.


Simon goes for a honey kind of sweetness.


Very full flavors. We're a little surprised to see the peat take a bit of back seat here. I mean it's there but the salt and the spice are forefront.


It's got a tanginess on the palate too. Maybe citrus again.


Ratings: Simon's bottle so he starts us off. For Simon this is a Speyside remix of the Ardbeg 10. It's softer, less raunchy, but it's got similar general flavors and feel to it, just with a Speyside twist. He likes it a little better, nicely balanced. He goes 82. Sean and Scott are both having a hard time placing this one. They can see the Ardbeg 10 with a twist reference. They both land on a 79 for this one. We average out to an 80 flat.


Overall: This is pretty pricey in Ontario, $250 CAD. That said we've seen it at more reasonable price point elsewhere. Our verdict here is that this is a really nice alternative to Islay peat. It tastes like a Islay scotch with a Speyside twist to it, rather than the other way around. If it's affordable in your area, we say go for it. If you're in the same boat as us, it rates poorly on our value scale and we think there's better alternatives in that price range.


Cheers!

The S&P Crew

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