The Balvenie Wants You To Drink Their “Stories”

Esteemed Scottish distillery The Balvenie has brought out a new series, dubbed “The Balvenie Stories.” The trio of single malt whiskies includes two permanent additions and one limited edition. On that basis,it is a good guess that enthusiasts can expect future annual, limited edition installments of The Balvenie Stories to fill out that number three slot, if the others prove successful. The line also showcases the talents of some of the deputy figures involved in tasting and blending expressions from The Balvenie.

The Sweet Toast of American Oak, created by apprentice malt master Kelsey McKechnie, is a 12 year old malt that received a four month finish in double toasted new oak barrels from America’s Kelvin Cooperage. Bottled at 43% ABV, it is $60.

The Week of Peat replaces the annual The Balvenie Peat Week release, started just two years ago. Fashioned by The Balvenie malt master David Stewart and former distillery manager Ian Millar, this is a gently peated, 14 year old malt bottled at 48.3% ABV. The RRP is $99.

Finally, the first limited edition in the series is A Day of Dark Barley. This malt came out of Stewart’s experiments with using heavily roasted malted barley of the type used to make stout. Those experiments were undertaken long before the current trend for drawing on the grains and yeasts of the beer industry in making whiskey, as the expression is a 26 year old. Only 50 cases of this 47.8% ABV whisky will be released, at a price tag of $799 per bottle.