The Huntley (Balvenie) Blended (teaspooned) Malt Whisky – Aged 25 Years!

THE HUNTLEY BLENDED 😉 MALT SCOTCH
Single sherry hogshead cask selected by K&L exclusively for their “Faultline” series (2024)

MASH BILL – 100% malted barley

PROOF – 102.8

AGE – 25 Years

DISTILLERY – Balvenie

PRICE – $272 tax and all

WORTH BUYING? – Yes, once I added water to it…

Given a bottle of Balvenie 25 Year direct from the distillery goes for ~$700 on a very lucky day, the opportunity to pick up a bottle of this cask strength single cask that K&L selected to offer under their in-house “Faultline” label was irresistible.

There are some winks that figure into why this bottling came about at such a good price. We can’t know why Balvenie let this cask go. There are many possible reasons. When they do part with casks, whoever takes them is typically contractually obliged not reveal the source on the label. To further ensure that obscurity, Balvenie will sometimes add a tiny teaspoon of some neighboring distillery’s whisky—usually Kininvie or Glenfiddich, according to K&L—in order to render it legally a blend rather than a single malt. So “The Huntley” is an invention of K&L’s, to have a name on the bottle. But this is essentially pure Balvenie, aged for 25 years in a single sherry hogshead cask, bottled without chill filtering, added color, or dilution.

These winks are common in the industry. It’s so widely done it almost seems silly that name-brand distilleries remain concerned about such things. Even though the label doesn’t reveal the source, anyone buying it from K&L will have read the reveal on their webpage and know what’s in the bottle, so 🤷🏼‍♂️.

In any case, the result of all that marketing slight of hand is I’ve got some quarter-century-old whisky in my glass from one of the top distilleries in Scotland!

Though I don’t typically keep a bottle of Balvenie on my home shelf, the brand holds a soft spot in my heart. It was a bottle of their excellent “gateway” single malt, the 12 Year Doublewood, that I purchased at a liquor store in Norrköping, Sweden, where I was attending a theater festival in 2017. One night after a long day of performances, some colleagues and I gathered in our hotel’s bar, where I managed to convince them to re-enact the Marion Ravenwood drinking contest from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The bar wouldn’t allow us to open my bottle of Balvenie for the video, so we used water. After our impromptu film shoot wrapped, we retired to our rooms and I went door to door with the Balvenie to share a toast to the day’s theater and film work.

So here we are, six days after uncorking this 25 Year Balvenie and three pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.

COLOR – a kind of buttery gold with subtle shiny copper highlights

NOSE – pear, dry oak tannin, honeydew melon, vanilla, a bundle of wild flowers, peach

TASTE – a light but notably sharp bite from the ABV that cuts an edge around an otherwise creamy texture, the peaches now in a vanilla-laced syrup, faint chilled baked nectarine

FINISH – oak tannins up front that fade first, leaving behind melon, peach, oak, vanilla

OVERALL – a teetering dance between bitterness, fruit, and vanilla

Interesting. But in a brow-furrowing way. The stone fruit and vanilla notes are at the core of this whisky, with the melon and floral notes hanging out nearby. The drier pear and oak tannin notes combine with that surprisingly sharp bite from the ABV to trap the softer, sweeter notes in an edginess that steps right up to Unpleasant, giving it a pushy nudge.

It’s unfortunate. And I hope over time that edginess will soften. Because without it, this whisky would be an utter delight. Sometimes oak tannins can contribute to the complexity of a whisky. Here they seem to have invited the pear and ABV to sing off key and loudly, knocking the harmony of the whole off balance.

I added a small splash of water…

The nose now comes off a tad drier, actually, though with a subtle milk chocolate note emerging. But on the palate things are instantly better! The ABV has backed off substantially, allowing the fruit and vanilla notes to hold forth. That lovely creamy texture now seems to sparkle like the metallics of the whisky’s color. The melon note steps forward to stand firmly alongside the peach and nectarine. And the finish is now sweeter overall, with only a subtle—and pleasing—oaky bitterness.

Although the purist in me always hopes any cask strength whisky will stand on its own, if it ultimately needs a dollop of water to really sing, fine. Here the added splash manages to keep those braying bitter edges at bay, allowing me to better enjoy the many pleasant notes this whisky has to offer. It’s now a rounded and gently complex experience, its layers of fruit, flower, and candy notes sloshing back and forth amongst each other in gentle waves. With water added, The Huntley transforms into an enjoyably bright, sunny, warm pour—perfect for just such a day, or to brighten up a cloudy one.

I gambled on this purchase, fingers crossed around my nostalgia for Balvenie. And though it’s not so utterly amazing that I couldn’t have gotten along fine without it, I’m also very glad to have it on the shelf. It makes a fine case for secondary bottlers, and a great case for adding a dollop of water to your cask strength drams!

Cheers!