Review: Ballantine’s Brasil (makes a good cocktail!)

Logo-Ballantines-Brasil-BD-560x293Ballantine’s Brasil – Spirit Drink – 35% abv

BBrazilPackRecently I was sent a box of goodies which turned out to be a Ballantine’s Brasil Cocktail Set! Great! It contains all the bits and bobs that you need to make a cracking summer drink… a recipe booklet, bottle of Ballantine’s Brasil, big stirring spoon, bottle of lemonade, tall glass, and a fresh lime, awesome stuff!

So, what is Ballantine’s Brasil? Basically it’s a flavoured whisky, but since you can’t flavour whisky and still call it whisky, it’s actually labelled as a “spirit drink” if you look closely, that’s law for you!

The official blurb reads as such:
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Review: Ballantine’s Christmas Reserve 2013 Limited Edition

Ballantine's Christmas ReserveBallantine’s has launched its fourth Christmas Reserve Limited Edition for 2013. Let’s take a look!

Colour: Rich and darkly fully golden.

Nose: Full of autumn fruit smells, sweet caramel, vanilla toffee, touches of smoke amongst malt, slight damp mossiness.

Palate: For something that’s 40% abv (and therefore assume chill-filtered) it has a pretty fair mouth coating to it, fairly rich and oily. It’s sweet and lusciously smooth, with honeyed wood noes coming through the maltiness really nicely. It’s well balanced, doesn’t feel too young, there’s no alcoholic nip to it.
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Information, Review and Google+ Hangout of Ballantine’s 12 Year Old!

Ballantine’s 12 Year Old – Dissection of the blend…Ballantine's 12 Bottle Shot

So recently I was involved in a Google+ Hangout (that’s a bit like a Skype or video conference call) with Sandy Hyslop, Ballantine’s Master Blender, and various other renowned figures from the whisky world including Joel Harrison (@joeldram) from Cask Strength and Carry On, Tiger White (@EdinburghWhisky), Tom Thomson (@ifotou) and Mark Gillespie (@whiskycast). This session was to investigate the inner workings of Ballantine’s 12 Year Old, a look at some of the grans and malts that make it up, and the other elements that go to make this creamy smooth blended dram of beauty.

Have a watch of the video below for all the full details! I’ve written up the best bits in case you can’t watch the video, and there’s also various official notes.
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News: Ballantine’s releases Champions Blend 2013

Ballantine's Championship Bottle 2013 Cabinet with Bottle Leather

Ballantine’s, the No.2 ultra-premium and Prestige Scotch whisky range in Asia-Pacific, has unveiled the 2013 Ballantine’s Championship Blend after exclusively bringing together Master Blender Sandy Hyslop and winner of the 2012 Ballantine’s Championship, Bernd Wiesberger, to create the sixth unique expression of the prestigious blend.
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