24 Oct Chef Anthony Bourdain & Balvenie Scotch Whisky
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Featured Interviews
This week Laurie sits down with Chef Anthony Bourdain, celebrated Chef & host of CNN’s Parts Unknown, to talk about his collaboration with Balvenie Scotch Whisky as well as the amazing craftsmen his highlights during the Rare Craft Collection tour. Laurie also gets a Scotch 101 lesson from brand ambassador & whiskey expert Jonathan Wingo.
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Whiskies we tasted:
Balvenie PortWood 21 yo Scotch, Scotland
Tasting Notes: To create The Balvenie PortWood Aged 21 Years, a marriage of rare Balvenie is transferred to port casks, or pipes, which have held fine port wines. Here it is sampled regularly by The Balvenie Malt Master to ensure that just the right amount of character is imparted by the port casks, enhancing and developing the single malt whilst preserving its original characteristics. In duty free The Balvenie PortWood Aged 21 Years is non chill-filtered and bottled at a higher strength of 47.6% abv.
Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14 yo Scotch, Scotland
Tasting Notes: Caribbean Cask has been matured in traditional oak whisky casks for 14 years, and then ‘finished’ in casks that previously held Caribbean rum. To create the ideal finish, Malt Master David Stewart filled American oak casks with his own blend of select West Indian rums. When he judged the casks to be ready, the rum was replaced with the 14 year old spirit and the wood was put to work adding the final touches. The result is an exceptional single malt whisky with the traditional smooth, honeyed character of The Balvenie, married with notes of toffee and a hint of fruit, with a warm, lingering finish.
Balvenie Double Wood 17 yo Scotch, Scotland
Tasting Notes:
o craft DoubleWood 17 Year Old, David Stewart, who celebrates his 50th year at The Balvenie in 2012, returned to one of his most celebrated achievements – consecutive maturation in two different types of cask, a process often referred to as ‘cask finishing.’ This technique is at the heart of The Balvenie DoubleWood – it sees the whisky matured first in American oak barrels, which impart soft sweet vanilla notes, before being transferred to European oak sherry casks, where the second cask aging adds rich spicy flavors, depth and fullness of flavor. An elder sibling to the popular DoubleWood 12 Year Old, this new aged version shares the same DNA and the honeyed, spicy characteristics as the 12 Year Old, but it is distinctly different, with deeper vanilla notes, hints of green apple, creamy toffee and a striking richness and complexity.
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