Soft, candy smoke and fruit, grass, honey caramel ... vanilla ... sour apples ... raw dough and malt and lemon on a fresh newspaper ... a hint of prunes? (21.5)
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Fruit smoke, salt? and cardboard (21,5)
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Spicy finish, honey on a dry wooden board, vegetable bitterness (21)
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Fresh fruits and fragrant scents in the initial scents with lots of apples (flambeed with calvados) and smoked pears. The peat is restricted, but well integrated in the spirit. Not so much a bonfire on the beach on a windy day, more a cosy fireplace indoors. The fruity peat is complemented by vanilla cream pudding, confectioner’s cream, the blackened hard crust of a freshly baked bread. Then it takes a backwards turn towards a car repair shop. We have motor oily, ironwork sparks, graphite, maybe even old tyres and car interiors. In between are lovely scents of butterscotch cookies. Sounds pretty weird, but the interplay between the fruits, pastries, the hearth, and all kinds of things from the garage is utterly pleasing. We also have hints of smoked pineapple, a few distant herbs, butter, and a hint of smoked ham. A quite complex nose, which even becomes slightly mouldy (in a good way).

Just as the nose, the palate opens into the orchard with freshly picked apples and pears and very pleasant peat smoke. A mouth full of distant bonfire smoke, slightly ashy, before we enter the garage. Iron dust, wet wood, car parts, motor oil, brake fluid, hint new rubber tyres, and new car seats. In particular the metallic notes remind me in the distance of Ben Nevis. The balance is beautiful, while the complexity is enhanced with fragrant flowers like roses and violets, and orange peel. It does feel like an sunny autumn saturday sitting in the garage, which looks out over the orchard, enjoying the fruits of an afternoon of picking aples and pears, with a fresh cup of orange-flower-flavoured tea on the side.

The finish is quite long with more bonfires, even some coals, oranges and iron.

Fair amount of earthiness initially, nice balance of oak wood and sweetened tobacco notes, floral with overtones of vanilla and lemon zest.

Earthy again – shinning through, sweet peated smoke with a slight bitter black tea note, subdued spices, cloves, quite drying with a hints of honey and vanilla.

Medium/long finish with a slight bitter end – 85% cocoa dark chocolate, quite fruity with a peppery sizzle on the tongue.

only subtle smoke, wet cloth, a little chamomile, with time the light pear, so typical of Balvenie, but covered with a slightly musty peat note.

Chamomile, light peat, mineral, wet stone, a little bitterness, some cardboard.

very tart, slightly tingling, some smoke, the chamomile I think so no longer, rather black tea.