This is the 2001 vintage from Chapter Five of The Balvenie DCS Compendium, the closing instalment of David Stewart's 25-cask series. It comes from a single European oak fino sherry butt, bottled at a full cask strength of 63.5%, a cask type rarely seen in Balvenie single cask releases.
About This Whisky
Chapter Five, released in 2019 as the final chapter, gathers casks Stewart held back simply because he thought they could become something special. Cask 9325 was filled on 25 April 2001 and bottled in 2019. Stewart chose it to represent the freedom he has been given to experiment, and he has described it as tasting quite unlike the usual Balvenie profile. Fino casks are drier and more saline than the oloroso butts usually used at Dufftown, so expect a lighter, nuttier sherry influence rather than dark dried fruit.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Toasted almond, green apple, bread dough and a salty, bone-dry fino edge over Balvenie honey
- Palate: Powerful and oily at full strength, with honeyed malt, walnut, lemon peel and a savoury, yeasty note; water brings out vanilla and orchard fruit
- Finish: Long and dry, with nutty sherry, white pepper and gentle oak
Serving & Food
Taste it first at full strength in a nosing glass, then add water a few drops at a time; at 63.5% it changes a great deal. Marcona almonds, aged Manchego or a few slices of jamón ibérico echo the fino side.
How to Enjoy
Collectors building the full Compendium, and cask-strength drinkers curious about fino-matured Speyside.
Product Details
Distillery: The Balvenie
Series: DCS Compendium, Chapter Five
Vintage: Distilled 25.04.2001
Age: 17 years old
Cask: European oak fino sherry butt, cask no. 9325
Bottled: 2019
Country: Scotland
Region: Speyside
ABV: 63.5% ABV
Volume: 700mL
About the Distillery
The Balvenie sits in Dufftown in the heart of Speyside, built by William Grant in the 1890s next to his Glenfiddich distillery. It still grows some of its own barley, turns part of its malt on traditional floor maltings and keeps coopers and a coppersmith on site, which is rare for a distillery of its size.
The DCS Compendium was released in five annual chapters from 2015 to 2019 to mark the career of Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE, who joined William Grant & Sons in 1962 and is credited with popularising cask finishing. Each chapter held five single casks from different decades, 25 casks in all, with only 50 complete sets per chapter.