Balmenach 1984 20 Year Old Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask

Balmenach 11 Year Old 2010 The Whisky Mercenary & ‘t Parlement 10th Anniversary

The Whisky Mercenary – Belgian bottler – and 't Parlement – fantastic whisky café in Halle – both celebrated their 10th anniversary in 2022 and therefore decided to release a whisky together. Apologies: two whiskies! A Balmenach and an Ardmore. In my glass is the first, so of the joint bottling #1, being a young Balmenach that looks particularly...

Score 82/100

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 1975

Nose: special. A sherry profile but quite different from anything I’ve tasted before. Earthy, with notes of hay and a fern forest. Nuts. Something of soy sauce. Apples. Coffee. Some heather. Rather strange but interesting notes of pine needles! Very complex really. Mouth: oily mouth-feel. Big notes of dried fruits (figs, raisins), candied orange...

Score 90/100

Balmenach 8 Year Old 2004 Gordon & Macphail Connoisseurs Choice

Balmenach is one of those noble unknown distilleries for the simple fact that the produce almost exclusively for the blenders. You can hardly find it as a single malt. So we have to look at the independent bottlers. Let us start with this G&M Connoisseurs Choice, which means it is bottled at 46% ABV. The nose is fairly sweet, but with a weird...

Score 81/100