Review #641 - SMWS 70.21 'Rosehip & Hibiscus Infusion' - Balblair 9 Year
Balblair is one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland. Officially, it began operations in 1790, although there are some records that would potentially place a start of operations even earlier than that. It sits in the Northern Highlands, and in recent years, production has been sitting around 1.5 million LPA, making this a mid-sized distillery.
While Balblair single malt is now widely distributed in official bottling form, it can also occasionally be found via independent bottlers, albeit a bit more rarely. Here's an example from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a 9 year old single cask in their 'Deep Rich & Dried Fruits' flavor profile. It spent 9 year in an ex-bourbon hogshead before a finish of less than a year in a first fill French oak hogshead; after just 9 years of maturation, this boasts a relatively rich natural color, and it's bottled at a hefty 60% ABV.
SMWS 70.21 'Rosehip & Hibiscus Infusion' - Balblair 9 Year
Scotland/Highland - Single Malt
Price: USD 100 (2017)
Age Statement: 9 Years
Strength: 60% ABV
Cask Makeup: Ex-bourbon hogshead, finished in a first fill French oak hogshead
Details: Not chill filtered, no color added; distilled May 11, 2007; 239 bottles
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 4 months from a sample. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Spirity and sugary, with lots of malty notes and honeycomb. Quite dense - it does start slightly closed up - but time brings juicy orange, as well as brown sugar, cardamom, and white pepper. In the background, there are subtle hints of polished oak and a more vegetal malt.
Palate: Very malty - warm, floral, honeyed malt. It's a bit fizzy, and we get fruit like yellow apple and orange, as well as plenty of baking spice notes: cinnamon, brown sugar, graham crackers. Time brings more wood spice and a bit of bubblegum, and the mouthfeel is medium-thick.
Finish: Sweet orchard fruit - apples, then bananas, lots of yellow fruit. Baking spices become dominant again: nutmeg, pepper, cardamom, a bit of maple syrup, too. Wood spice builds, and we get a nice black tea note on the back end, as well as toasted oak. It's a medium length finish.
Final Note: Densely flavored, quite rich, but not a ton of complexity - this is a good cask strength single malt, but the limited aging of 9 years shows in that simplicity. Texture is quite good, and we enjoyed the combination of orchard fruit and baking spice flavors; a bit of a classic ex-bourbon Highland single malt with a nice malty backbone.
Value is okay - this specific single cask is long since sold out, having been released around 2017. It's still a nice guide for more recent Balblair/SMWS bottlings, though; the Society does charge a higher price for their quality, but there are some gems to be found on the more reasonable end of their pricing scale.
Our Average Rating: 6.9 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 5.89
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
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