Balvenie Peat Week Review

Back in 2001, The Balvenie began to experiment with making a heavily peated single malt whisky. Apparently the experiment was successful—beginning in 2002, the distillery started a tradition of dedicating one week every year to making peated whisky. Earlier this year, Balvenie added a new whisky to the core range—Peat Week, the first annual bottling of their peated whisky.

Distilled in 2002 and aged 14 years in American oak (mostly, if not entirely, ex-bourbon barrels), Peat Week is uncommonly peated by modern day Speyside whisky standards. This malt was peated at a level of 30 ppm, which puts it in a similar range of peat as Caol Ila and Lagavulin. There are a handful of other Speyside distilleries who use peated malt, such as Ardmore and BenRiach, but they are the exceptions. According to the label (or more specifically, the very informative packaging tube), this whisky is the first heavily peated Balvenie whisky produced in over 50 years.

Although peated Speyside whiskies are not terribly common, I’ve really enjoyed the ones that I’ve tried. Meanwhile, I’ve always liked Balvenie single malts, but I’ve rarely loved them. They are usually good, but I feel like many Balvenie releases are missing something… maybe some peated malt is the answer? Let’s see.

Balvenie Peat Week Review

Type: Single Malt Scotch
Region: Speyside
ABV: 48.3%
Non chill-filtered

Nose

Toasted marshmallow. Smokey embers. Crème brûlée. Lots of light fruits, particularly melon, peach, and red apples. Sage. Some non-distinct florals. Freshly cut pine wood. Quite nice.

Palate

Like the nose, a lot of toasted marshmallow. Plenty of that typical Balvenie honey. Gentle, earthy peat smoke, but subdued—this is far from being a peat monster. Milk chocolate, with a hint of orange. Citrusy fruit syrup. Melon. A little floral, but not much. Malty. Lots of light dessert and candy notes, including vanilla cream, crème brûlée, caramel pie, marzipan, toffee, and nougat. The mouthfeel is thick and creamy. Delicious.

Finish

Long, although perhaps a little light. Marshmallow. Caramel drizzled over vanilla ice cream. Malty. Just a touch of sweet florals. Watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Almond paste. Marzipan. Fading and light peat smoke.

Overall

I’m in love with this whisky. This is pretty much what you would expect from a peated, bourbon barrel-aged Balvenie—a fruity, honeyed malt with gentle smokiness. That said, there’s more complexity here than I expected, with lots of nice and light dessert notes. The toasted marshmallow is particularly prominent, and is balanced quite well by the light smokiness. It has a s’mores-like quality to it, with some chocolate and a hint of savoriness to go with the toasted marshmallow. It’s quite delicious.

The peat smoke isn’t all that powerful, so if you’re looking for something akin to Ardbeg or Laphroaig (or any other peated Islay whisky), then you might be disappointed. But for me, it really hits all the right notes. I love malty and rich whiskies that are rounded out by a light to moderate amount of peat smoke, and that is exactly what we have here. Highly recommended.

SCORE: 91/100

Final Thoughts

I’m not exactly what you’d call a Balvenie fanboy (and there are plenty of such whisky fans). I’ve enjoyed the Balvenie single malts I’ve had. I’ve never had a bad one. But I’ve never been completely blown away by one either (although I do enjoy their 15 year old single barrel Sherry cask). I gave the only Balvenie I’ve previously reviewed here on the Mule a fairly middling score and review. So I’m not coming from a Balvenie fanboy perspective when I say this: I think this malt is legitimately one of the best whisky releases of 2017.

Buy again? Yes. This is delicious and I will be buying more bottles, if I can find them.

Questions about my scoring system? Refer to the Review Method & Scoring Scale page.

For more reviews, check out the Whisky Review Archive.

Enjoying the content on Meade Mule? Help keep the drink reviews flowing by supporting me on Patreon.