Balvenie 17 Madeira Cask Finished, 43% abv.

This 2009 Balvenie... was part of the 17 year series. Not gonna lie, due to a previous Balvenie 21 Madeira, I'm expecting glorified water, but hoping for a spicey sweet madeira influence!

Nose: generally light focused cedar wood, light sweet wine, initially chocolate which becomes grass, some spiced vegetables. Not alot of body in there.

Palate: very woody, oven-baked stale toast, back palate has light vanilla. Overall quite dull for a madeira finished whisky, beginning to think Balvenie and madeira don't mix.

Finish: short to medium, dry, a little sour, vanilla.

Totally doesn't taste like a madeira finished whisky. I'm beginning to think the sweetness of Balvenie doesn't mix well with madeira casks, maybe there are some offsetting ingredients that neutralize the positive qualities in both, or maybe its just South Korea? In any case, extremely disappointing since these Bal Mads are not cheap. Seems like some reviewers also didn't think too highly of this one. Had this at Mottie, Busan, South Korea.

Grade: C-

Whiskyfun.com, Serge Valentin, sgp:451, 84 points
Malt maniacs, 83 points on 3 reviews
Whisky advocate, John Hansell, 90 points

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

🇭🇰 🇺🇸(LA, SF) -> 🇯🇵 (京都, 東京) -> 🇰🇷 (서울, 부산)