Luckily, Balvenie, one of the standard-bearers in the world of scotch, has a special release just in time for the fall: the Balvenie Tun 1509 Batch 2. The first batch was released in 2014 as a follow up to the Tun 1401, which featured nine installments.
The Balvenie Tun 1509 Batch 2 follows the same concept as the Tun 1401—Malt Master David Stewart selected thirty-two casks from Balvenie’s aged stocks to combine in Tun 1509. For those of you who haven’t heard the term before, a tun is usually where whisky mash is combined with hot water to allow sugar to dissolve. Here, the tun is used for whiskies to intermix for several months before they are eventually bottled.
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The concept behind creating a specialty scotch in this manner is that by combining the different ages of whisky can create a final product that is greater than the sum of its parts. The aged casks are selected with the utmost care so that each one that is married to the greater sum creates fine balance of flavor. For this batch of Tun 1509, David Stewart selected nine European oak sherry casks (compared to seven in the previous batch) in order to bring out greater notes of cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg within the whisky.
The Balvenie Tun releases have gained a voracious following within the scotch community, with bottles flying off the shelf immediately upon release. The Balvenie Tun 1509 arrives in U.S. stores this month. A 750ml bottle will go for about $350.00. But when you know that the bottle is made from the marriage of 32 Balvenie scotches, all over twenty years old—that’s not a cost, that’s an investment.
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