The Balvenie Peat Week 14yo – 48.3%

Info: Peat Week has been aged for 14 Years, it’s 2002 vintage. 100% of highland peated malt (30ppm) used. Non-chill filtered, fully matured in American oak casks.
Colour: Bright gold with a slight autumn tint.
Nose: Fairly robust spirit on your nose. There’s a slightly early nutty note, backed up with gentle honey and oak, with hints of hessian. Fairly good amount of vanilla, and some milk chocolate notes. Slight puffs of fresh smoke, fairly restrained, and not coastal.
Palate: Reasonably thick on the palate, a fair amount of oils on your tongue. There’s interesting oak spices that hit the top and back of your palate more than your tongue. The malt notes are honeyed and just gently peated, they sparkle on your tongue a little bit.
Finish: The peat shows through more strongly on the finish. It’s nice and long; lovely and warming on your chest. Those subtle peat smoke puffs start to show their head a little more after a while, making the finish last much longer than you’d imagine.
Thoughts: If you’re a hardened peat whisky drinker then you will find this very subtle, but you will still enjoy finding the peat in this easy going malt. If you’re someone who’s not sure they like peat, then this is a great whisky to give it a whirl to see what you might be missing, it’s a subtle and easy introduction with none of the strong Islay notes that might have previously put you off.
Available: Master of Malt – £59.28

Thanks to Balvenie for the sample, I have also purchased my own bottle.