Balvenie Miniatures Set from late 1990s - Founder's Reserve 10, Double Wood 12, Single Barrel 15 (3 x 5cl, 40%-50.4%)
Balvenie Miniatures Set from late 1990s - Founder's Reserve 10, Double Wood 12, Single Barrel 15 (3 x 5cl, 40%-50.4%)
This "Refining the Art of Malt Whisky Making" collectable set with tasting notes at the back of presentation box was produced around the year 1996 and contains three Old Label 5cl miniature bottles of The Balvenie Malt Scotch Whisky:
10 Year Old Founder's Reserve 40% ABV
12 Year Old Double Wood 40% ABV
15 Year Old Single Barrel 50.4% ABV
Built by the Grant family in Dufftown, and situated next door to sister distillery Glenfiddich, Balvenie is at the heart of Grant's range of blends. Despite their proximity and shared water source, the style of spirit produced by the pair are quite different, with Balvenie producing a sweeter, more honeyed and very lightly peated new make spirit.
It wasn't until 1990, when Kininvie distillery was able to shoulder some of the responsibility for blending stock production, that Balvenie was really able to push forward as a single malt. The distillery quickly distinguished itself through use of innovative maturation processes, and was a pioneer of cask "finishing" with the introduction of it's DoubleWood expression in 1993. Balvenie is also one of the few remaining distilleries still using on site maltings, although today this only meets a small percentage of its requirements.