Whisky : Balmenach 15 Year 48.110 “Sooooternes!”

Country/Region : Scotland/Speyside

ABV : 56.6%

Cask : Ex-Bourbon Hogshead (13Y), First Fill Ex-Sauternes Barrique (2Y)

Age : 15 Years (Distilled 8 March 2004)

Nose : Creamy, malty, and loaded with fruit candies.  Creamy vanilla pudding pops, caramel drizzled sponge cake, and a beautifully malty whole wheat toast slice loaded with homemade jelly.  Mixed pack of fruity bubble gum sticks come into focus— grape, strawberry, pink watermelon, and lemon lime.

Palate :  Juicy and almost savory with a rich malty profile—medium bodied with a pleasant heat.  White grape juice and floral chrysanthemum tea come through with Fruit Stripe bubble gum and sharp tropical lychee lingering in the background.  Tobacco and malty sugars develop on the end like a powdered jelly roll or strawberry guava danish.

Finish :  Lovely long finish of overripe fruits, sweet pastry and lingering powdered sugar.

Score : 6

Mental Image : Conference Pastry Platter

Something Similar : Bladnoch 21Y; Exclusive Malts (similar white grape/tea/floral, more cream)

Something Worse : Chita 3Y SMWS G13.1 (similar fruity bubble gum, more vanilla/tannic)

Notes : I get the impression that whoever came up with this SMWS name imagined an atomic Sauternes bomb exploding in the glass.  The malty character of Balmenach poked through, almost like survivors of a post-apocolyptic world hesitantly looking outside their Vault at a ruined landscape— a landscape forever changed by bright influence of the Sauternes cask which bathed everything in fruit and sugar.  This was an interesting bottle, one that I think our tasting group anticipated a lot more than it enjoyed.  There are more than a few fans of anything matured or finished in wine or other unique casks— I am not always among their number.  Balmenach is probably one of the few malts I would chose to finish in a really active wine cask— it has such a robust malty character that it can stand up without getting totally lost, though this was a close call.

I think there was a really interesting complexity to this dram as it shifted between layers of sugary sweet fruits and savory elements of tea and tobacco.  This was a bit too sweet for my palate, though I would happy accept a pour of it, but I think anyone who really enjoys broadly fruity malts would find a lot to love.  There was some great contrast between the sugary grape notes and the tangy tropical fruits.