Drinking News
Balvenie unveils 17-year whiskey and hits the road looking for Americancraftsmen
Just weeks after its neighbor Glenfiddich unleashed a new whiskey on the States, Balvenie unveiled its own new spirit, the 17-year-old DoubleWood. The 17 is aged using the same casking process as its 12-year-old sibling.
According to Lorne Cousin, Balvenie’s USA ambassador and bagpiper extraordinaire — seriously, he has performed with Missy Elliott and Madonna — the 17 spends the majority of its maturation process in American oak barrels before moving to European oak sherry casks for a few months to finish.
The new spirit is the brainchild of Balvenie’s Malt Master David Steward, who is celebrating his 50th anniversary on the job.
“In the 1980s, he invented the concept of finishing whiskey in a different cask,” Cousin says. “Until then, it was always in one cask, like bourbon or sherry. But he said, ‘Well, why don’t we try putting it in a second cask, just to finish it?’ And it took off.”
According to Cousin, the main characteristic of the Balvenies is an underlying honey flavor. The DoubleWood has a vanilla profile that comes from the American oak casks and a slight sherry tone that comes from the European finishing cask.
According to Cousin, the 17-year-old DoubleWood should be available October 22 at most local liquor stores, including Spec’s and Sigel’s, for a recommended price of $129.99.
In addition to promoting its new 17-year baby, Balvenie is in the middle of its 2012 Rare Craft Roadshow that honors craftspeople around the country who still do things by hand.
“The way we make Balvenie, we still use the old crafts of whisky making,” Cousin says. “We like to think it’s the most handcrafted whisky in the world.”
Cousin says that they’re taking a hand-made Morgan Motor Co. car across the country to find like-minded artisans. They stopped in Dallas October 18 to visit Dude, Sweet Chocolate in the Bishop Arts District.
The tour has a few more stops, in places like New Orleans and Atlanta, before it returns to New York to finish up. Cousin says there will be a group of finalists who receive fellowship grants and possibly a trip to the distillery in Dufftown, Scotland, to talk shop with the Balvenie craftsmen.
“The whole point of the roadshow is to celebrate craftsmen who have a passion,” Cousin says.