Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The Final Chapter of The Balvenie Compendium Now Available

By

The Balvenie has announced that the final chapter in its Compendium series, The Balvenie DCS Compendium Chapter Five “Malt Master’s Indulgence,” will be released this month for a cool $80,000. This series is comprised of various vintages that are personally selected by malt master David Stewart, one of the longest-tenured professionals in the Scotch whisky industry. As indicated by the name, this final release is a nod to the freedom Stewart has enjoyed as malt master to select any cask he deems fit to set aside and further age for decades if he sees potential there.

The Balvenie Compendium
The Balvenie

The lineup of the final chapter consists of five different whiskies: a 1962 vintage (56 years old) aged in a European oak Oloroso sherry hogshead in commemoration of Stewart’s first year working at The Balvenie; a 1974 vintage (44 years old) aged in a refill American oak barrel that marks the year Stewart was appointed malt master; a 1983 vintage (35 years old) aged in a refill American oak hogshead that celebrates the year Stewart began tinkering around with various styles of maturation; a 2001 vintage (18 years old) matured in a European oak Fino sherry butt meant to celebrate the latitude Stewart has been granted throughout his career; and the youngest, a 2002 vintage (16 years old) aged in a first-fill American oak bourbon barrel that is a tribute to Stewart’s reintroduction of peat into the production process with The Week of Peat. Only 50 sets are available globally, each presented in an oak frame crafted by Scottish designer Sam Chinnery, and accompanied by The Balvenie DCS Compendium book written by former global ambassador Dr. Samuel J. Simmons.

Recommended Videos

“It takes a good deal of time to understand how each cask differs and how whisky maturation is affected by various wood types,” said Stewart in a prepared statement. “Working for a family company, I’ve been lucky enough to have been given the freedom to make stock decisions based on my preference and vision, with the free rein to pick casks and hold on to whisky, not always knowing what I’m going to do with it, for no other reason than thinking one day it will be extraordinary. For me, this is indulgence in its truest form.”

Related

The only whisky available separately from the Compendium is the 1962 vintage, for an SRP of $47,000. The entire Compendium is available for $80,000.  Contact The Balvenie for more information.

Editors’ Recommendations

Jonah Flicker
Jonah Flicker
Jonah Flicker is a freelance writer who covers booze, travel, food, and lifestyle. His work has appeared in a variety of…
Isle of Raasay Distillery Gears Up for Inaugural Release with Final While We Wait Single Malt
isle of raasay new scotch whisky single malt distillery glencairn 2

In Scotland, the whisky industry is still dominated by the old guard, distilleries like Glenfiddich and Laphroaig that date back to the early 19th century. Though there is nothing that even comes close to the craft distilling scene that we have here in the U.S., there are some upstart distilleries that are attempting to make their mark on the single malt Scotch whisky field. One such distillery is the Isle of Raasay Distillery located on, you guessed it, the Isle of Raasay just off the east coast of the Isle of Skye. This is the first legal distillery on the island, and its inaugural release whisky is due to be released this Christmas. This lightly peated single malt was aged in ex-bourbon barrels and finished in first fill Bordeaux red wine casks, and will be bottled with no added color and non-chill filtered.

In the meantime, the distillery has also been releasing installments of its "While We Wait" whisky, a single malt that is meant to show the journey from new make spirit to aged final product. The fifth and final release of While We Wait, which ships to 21 states in the U.S., came out a few months ago, a blend of peated and unpeated whiskey finished in French oak Tuscan red wine casks. We had a chance to catch up with Raasay cofounder Alasdair Day to talk about opening a new distillery in Scotland, the evolution of the whisky, and how the distillery has been coping during the pandemic.

Read more
The World’s Northernmost Whisky, Bivrost, is Now Available
Bivrost

In what could truly prove to a be a study in how climate affects whiskey maturation, Norway's Aurora Spirit Distillery has released what it is calling the world's northernmost whisky. The whisky is a single malt called Bivrost, which is a Viking word that refers to the Norse myth of the Northern Lights being the bridge between Asgard and our world (Middle Earth). It's made from barley sourced from Viking Malt in Finland and glacial water from the Lyngen Alps. The malt is mashed and fermented into wash at Mack brewery in the village of Nordkjosbotn, 70 km south of the distillery, and then transported to the distillery's wash tanks. "As of now we do not have any plans to do our own wash," said a rep for the distillery. "We trust it to the ones who have been doing this for almost 150 years. We are however conducting several different experiments regarding our whisky development, including utilizing local Arctic barley. This is a project we started up in 2019, where we are working together with different local farmers to produce the northernmost barley in the world for whisky production. We did two test batches last year and will continue doing batches of Arctic barley in the future."

The whisky was matured in smaller casks to help accelerate the aging process in the relatively low temperatures in northern Norway (smaller barrels increase the surface area for greater interaction between the liquid and the wood). As in Scotch whisky maturation, a variety of casks types were used -- sherry, bourbon, and virgin oak. There are plans to possibly use aquavit casks in the future as well. In the area surrounding the distillery, there is an old fort built by the Germans when they occupied Norway during WWII. The warehouses are actually old NATO bunkers that are located very close to the sea, which may play a factor in the whisky's character as many seaside Scottish distilleries claim this proximity adds a hint of salinity to the palate. The whisky makers claim that there is very good temperature fluctuation and humidity levels in the warehouses.

Read more
Chivas Releases Extra 13 Collection Scotch Whiskies
Whiskey in a glass

It appears that the new Scotch Whisky Association rules allowing Scotch to be finished in a larger variety of cask types has been a welcome boon to the industry, which has been taking advantage of this new way to innovate. Just last month, Dewar's launched Ilegal Smooth, an eight-year-old blended whisky finished in Ilegal Mezcal casks.

And now Chivas, owned by drinks company Pernod Ricard, has followed suit with its Chivas Extra 13 collection, a series of 13-year-old blends that are finished in different types of barrels. The new lineup consists of the following expressions: Chivas Extra 13 Oloroso Sherry Cask, Chivas Extra 13 Rum Cask, Chivas Extra 13 American Rye Cask, and Chivas Extra 13 Tequila Cask.

Read more