Balvenie Tun 1401 Batch 5 Review

Country: Scotland 

Region: Highland - Speyside

Brand: The Balvenie Tun 1401 Batch # 5

Type: Single Malt Whisky

Age: NAS

ABV: 50.1 %

Sample Received from Andrew in Australia. Thanks!

Colour: Light Amber with a touch of Orange.

Nose: The Nose needs time to open up. Batch # 5 does not give up its hidden treasures easily. What does become clear right from the start however is that this Marriage has worked out well. From which we should not automatically deduct that marriages shouldn't last for more than three months of course. Right? Right. Back to the Balvenie! It shows good balance between the Sherry butts and the Bourbon casks. I get Sherry, Oak, Honey, Balvenie Oranges, Floral Tones, Dried Fruits, Cigars, Leather, Wood Polish, Brown Sugar, Walnuts, Milk Chocolate, Cocoa Powder, Sweet Malt and ripe Plums. You do find traces of The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 as well. 

Palate: Mouth coating, quite thick delivery. Rather Spicy as well with Pepper, Licorice and Cinnamon. Reminds me somewhat of older Bourbon. I also get Lemon and Orange, Oak, Honey, Sherry, Caramel, Dark Cherries, Leather and Chocolate.

Finish: Middle-Long, Dry and Spicy with Bitter Chocolate, Tobacco, Leather, Citrus, Pepper, Nutmeg, Malt, Oak, Aniseed and Tea.

With a bit of Water the Nose shows more Malt, Honey, Chocolate and Ripe Fruit. But it also gets a bit Soapy. As usual, Palate and Finish get too watery for my taste. But that's personal of course. You certainly can experiment with a bit of Water when you are nosing and tasting Batch # 5. 

Rating: 85

Nose: 22  - Taste: 21 - Finish: 21- Overall: 21

General Remarks: The Tun 1401 is a special large vatting cask that Grant's Master Blender David Stewart uses for marrying hand selected specials casks from the Balvenie's Warehouse # 24, one of the oldest areas of this distillery. Seven batches have been released so far, most of them for selected regions or special Travel Retail issues. The Batch # 5 we are tasting today was released in October 2012 and is a vatted Blend of 5 Sherry Butts and 4 Bourbon Casks that were mostly distilled in the Seventies. But there is some newer spirit in it as well. Subsequently these casks were married together for three months in Tun 1401 and bottled at Cask Strength. It's quite expensive of course at around 250 US Dollars. 

Drinking Experience Neat: Good

Conclusion: Not an easy one this Batch # 5. Make sure you give the whisky plenty of time to open up. When it does, the Nose is very well-balanced and complex. This balance is not quite extended to the Palate and Finish. Lots of Lemon, Oak and Spice and not enough Sherry and Fresh Sweet Fruit to balance it out. There is Fruit but it's nearly overripe. All this is of course explained by the age of many of the whiskies used for this Batch. So if you like a well-matured whisky with lots of very ripe Fruit, Oak, Spices and Lemon and images of Christmas Spices and Mulled Wine, this Balvenie might just be your whisky of choice for special occasions. But although it's a very well-crafted Single Malt, I would not spend 250 US Dollars on Batch # 5 . I even think I would have scored this whisky a couple of points lower in a Blind Tasting Session. In any case I would advise you to try out a sample first before buying a full bottle.

Jan van den Ende                                                                    May 10, 2013

Master Blender David Stewart