Balblair 12-Year-Old review

 

Balblair 12-Year-Old	Data Sheet
Barcode	5010509881548
Price	Israel: 240 Shekels, UK: £50
Bottling Strength	46% abv
Volume	700ml
Non-Chill-Filtered	Yes
Natural Colour	Yes
Maturation/Cask Type	Refill Ex-Bourbon barrels, Double Fired American Virgin Oak
Distillery Owner	Inver House Distillers
Importers	Paneco Group Ltd
Kashrus	No Kashrus issues
Kosher Certification	KF (Federation of Synagogues, UK)

Introduction

A few weeks ago, someone asked me for a recommendation for a typical North-Highlands single malt. After a few moments thought on the matter, I recommended the Balblair 12-Year-Old. I opened up my Balblair12.docx file containing the tasting notes on this official bottling in order to describe the whisky to him and decided that as I now had the document open, that it was well overdue that I publish a review on this whisky.

Kashrus Issues

As stated above, being matured in Ex-Bourbon and Virgin Oak barrels, the Balblair 12 does not seem to have any kashrus issues and has kashrus certification by the KF, London. However, (and as mentioned in my review of the anCnoc 12), the KF hechsher only appears on 750ml bottles bound for the North American market. 

Maturation

There was a bit of a mystery regarding one aspect of the Balblair 12’s cask maturation.

See their website:

https://www.balblair.com/collection/1-balblair-12-year-old

It describes the maturation thus:

“Matured in American oak ex-bourbon & double-fired American oak casks, bringing elegant and complexity and warmth”

Apart from the bad grammar, that term “Double Fired American oak” caught my eye. What exactly does it mean?

The use of the term “American Oak casks” in contrast to Ex-Bourbon, indicates that these are Charred Virgin American Oak barrels (that is, barrels made from American oak which are being used by Balblair without having had any previous contents in them). However, what was puzzling was the term “Double Fired”.

“Fired” is a word which implies that a direct fire has been applied to the inside of barrel, which is usually called “charring”. But then, once you’ve charred (fired) the barrel, what would be the point of charring a second time?

Obviously, I Googled this term “double-fired” expecting to find it being used in sites dedicated to Barrel preparation in the USA, but lo and behold, every single result only referred back to the Balblair 12-Year-Old!

Double Charred

Charring a barrel twice (at least to me), makes no sense. Looking through the websites that talk about Bourbon, American Whiskey and American Barrel production, I did come across a term called “Double Charred”.  However, this is referring to a type of American whiskey which has been double matured, first in one type of charred barrel and then in another. The first usually has had a light char, say No.1 Char applied and the second has had a heavier char, say No.3 or No.4 applied. This Double Charred process is supposed to give the whisky a more complex flavour. It certainly doesn’t however refer to a barrel which has been charred or fired twice!

Obsessive?

You may think that I’m being a bit obsessive and pedantic trying to establish the meaning of this unfamiliar term, when in truth it could simply be a near meaningless made-up slogan by a marketing department. It is true to say that it's often the case that marketing departments do not possess more than a superficial knowledge of the product they are supposed to be promoting (in this case whisky), and will sometimes make up some term which sounds impressive but which is somewhat disconnected from reality.

It does nevertheless make me curious because with my 30 years plus experience in the field of whisky kashrus issues, it might conceivably indicate that that they are using some new procedure for preparing their casks which could possibly have some kashrus ramifications. In this case, I really don’t think it has but even so, I’d like to get to the bottom of this mystery.

What is “Double Fired American Oak”?

I wrote to Balblair some months ago but answer came there none! I did receive an automatic acknowledgement email of receipt of the message I'd sent them through their Contact form, but that was that.

I asked Gordon Bruce, manager of Balblair’s sister distillery, Knockdhu, thinking that being a cask expert and working for the same parent company, he’d know for sure. But to my surprise, he had also never heard of the term. He suggested, off the top of his head, that it might simply be a meaningless piece of marketing gobbledegook.

There was one more person to try. I cannot mention his name but let’s just say that when it comes to the American barrel industry, he is one of the world’s leading experts and works for probably the biggest supplier of Ex-Bourbon and other types of American whiskey barrels to the Scotch Whisky Industry. Again, I can’t mention the name of the company but I can assure you that mentioning their name in any whisky enthusiasts’ forum would guarantee to raise the temperature.

I sent him an email and even though it was a Sunday, within 20 minutes I’d received a reply. He said that his guess was that it was a fancy marketing term for the casks having been “heat treated” twice. Probably, it had gone through an initial toasting (possibly after the oak staves had been steamed).

Toasting is a term used for a mild indirect heat from a wood-fire flame which is applied to the inside of the barrel for a few minutes. Although this is standard practice in preparation of  Spanish Sherry casks made for the Scotch Whisky industry, as well as part of the process for rejuvenating old casks in Scottish cooperages, it is an unusual practice in cooperages in North America which make charred barrels for the American Whiskey industry.

Then as the "Double Fired" term implies, these barrels have gone through a second heat treatment, that being a standard charring. So, mystery solved. It seems that Gordon Bruce’s initial guess was correct, that it was indeed some impressive sounding term invented in the marketing department. 

Whisky Presentation, Packaging and Artwork

Whisky Presentation

During the 1990s up until 2019, before Balblair chose to completely rebrand its products, it was one of the classiest acts in the Scotch Whisky Industry and way ahead of its time. Balblair Single Malt Whisky had so many unique and innovative features, it set it apart from all others.

These features (which were standard throughout the entire range), included being bottled at a high 46% abv and always stating on the bottle in bold type that it was “Natural Colour” and “Non-Chill Filtered”.

Moreover, Balblair never practiced “Finishings”, that is, after an initial maturation period, re-racking the whisky into more active or more exotic casks before bottling. All their whisky was (and thankfully still is today), fully matured in the same casks from start to finish.

Balblair and Vintage Statements

Vintage Statement versus Age Statement

Back then, hardly anyone else could boast all the qualities mentioned above and certainly not for every one of their expressions. But, besides all these things, the major feature which set Balblair apart from all the other brands was the fact that the entire Balblair range came with a "Vintage Statement" instead of an Age statement.

Unlike a vintage statement found on a bottle of wine, where the year refers to when the grapes were harvested, a Whisky Vintage statement refers to the year the malted barley mash was distilled (and has nothing to do with when the barley was harvested as many mistakenly assume). According to the SWA regulations, a legal Vintage statement must include not only a Distillation Year but also a Bottling Year (often with the actual date of bottling), so that one can perform a simple calculation and work out the approximate age of the whisky by taking the distillation year away from the bottling year.

What makes a Vintage Statement so special?

If you think about it, by virtue of the fact that a Single Malt Whisky is bottled with a Vintage Statement, the bottle you now hold in your hand will contain spirit which has come from a single production bottling run over a period of a few days from a single batch of casks of a similar provenance. It's the next best thing, in my opinion, to a Single Cask bottling.

This is in total contrast to Age statement bottlings where all you really know about the contents of the botte is the age of the youngest whisky in the vatting. The casks could be of a totally different source and quality, even a different cask type and the final vatting could be made up from whiskies of  different ages, depending on what the distillery has in stock at the time.

Vintages are actually quite amazing because you are getting less of a product of some master blender and more of a true snapshot of that distillery at the time of bottling. This is, in my opinion, the ultimate in transparency. I wish there were more distilleries, like Kilchoman and Glen Scotia, bottling with Vintage statements. That's why many enthusiasts including myself, were very upset when we heard that Inver House had decided to discontinue Balblair Vintage Statements.

The Old Signature Flavour

Balblair Single Malt had a signature flavour which at first would seem to be underwhelming, appearing to be simplistic, characterless and uninteresting. The fact that it was a natural colour and often appeared in the glass as pale, only added to this facade. However, this was all deception (no doubt to keep the non-serious casual drinkers away), as leaving the liquid in the glass, taking your time and allowing the “Scotch Mist” to form in the glass, revealed a basket with a wide fruit selection, honey, heather honeysuckle, maltiness and complex character.

Whilst on a private tour of Balblair back in October 2017, I discussed this subtle maturation distillery style and asked how they achieved this. Gabriel Balfour (the then head of the visitors' centre), explained that it was produced by the use of a combination of 2nd and 3rd-fill casks, rather than using much more dominant First-Fill, which she explained would give you a quick but superficial maturation for bottling at young ages. Instead Balblair’s cask selection ideology of using less dominantly flavoured casks produces a subtler, at first sip, a deceptively clean and light whisky, yet if given the time in the glass, will reveal an amazingly complex whisky profile.

In that sense she explained, Balblair was the perfect connoisseur’s whisky because if you casually approach a Balblair without any patience, you simply won’t get it! Balblair reveals itself only to those who are willing to invest the time in it.

The Old Packaging

In my opinion, the old packaging was a masterclass in marketing excellence. The box had two doors with a magnetic catch which when opened, revealed the bottle in the most elegant and exquisite way. Removing the bottle from the tightly fitting top moulding was a challenge however, resulting in many a box getting torn on its sides. A classic case of marketing imagery over substance and function. Nevertheless, people loved it.

The Old Bottle Design

Like everything else about Balblair, it’s slightly bulbous and curvaceous bottle design certainly made it stand out on the shelf. To add to the elegance, there was a swirly pattern embossed on the side.

The cork stopper continued this bulbous theme by being (to the best of my knowledge), the chunkiest and most substantial on the market, only superseded today by the simply gigantic cork stopper used on the exclusive "Cask Strength" range from Independent bottlers, Signatory. The solid wood cork stopper was embossed with a large “B” written in a swirling font on the top.

One could argue that all this was over-branding but along with the excellent whisky, it garnered a lot of fans.

Strangely, there was one aspect of the packaging which in complete contrast to the rest of the design, looked amateurish and wholly out of place. This is the weird and rather tacky looking black plastic which was heat moulded onto the cork stopper. It was almost always applied unevenly, was wonky, crinkly and often had heat bubbles.

Balblair devotees would no doubt romantically tell you that it looks like black candle wax poured over the bottleneck, but to me, it simply looks substandard.  It's also something which could easily be copied by whisky fakers. It really did look like the bottle had been tampered with for some reason and then amateurly re-resealed. To me, it never made any sense why they never invested in a more professional and elegant cork stopper seal design like everyone else. In my opinion, even a simple paper band glues around the stopper would have been better.

The 2019 Rebranding

For reasons known only to themselves, someone up in corporate made the decision to discontinue the beloved and iconic Balblair Vintage Statements and switch to the industry standard Age Statement. I remember that it caused a lot of outrage and anger in the whisky enthusiasts’ forums at the time. Thankfully however, the entire range remains at 46% abv, Natural Colour and Non-Chill Filtered.

Not content with this mammoth change in product identity, Inver House Distillers decided that the Balblair range needed a complete rebranding to go along with this change of direction.

The New Packaging

The rebranding of the packaging reminds me somewhat of the box you get with a new Samsung Galaxy phone. It’s full of folding cardboard, designed to provide space inside the box to store things like the guarantee or a USB cable, as well as providing padding to keep the phone safe during transport.

The Balblair packaging has these odd side pieces of cardboard which secure and pad the bottle. However, they take up a lot of room and necessitate that the overall size of the box must be some 20% bigger than the actual bottle it’s meant to protect. That’s just on the sides though. There is a huge a gap from the bottle cork stopper to the top of the box. It looks as if there is supposed to be something stored there like a promotional booklet or a flat whisky flask for example. Why all the waisted space?

The amount of extra room that the Balblair box takes up in my cocktail cabinet is ridiculous and quite annoying.

The New Bottle Design

Although the bottle still looks similar to the old one, it has been sent to a health and fitness camp, lost a lot of weight and become thinner and trimmer. That elegant circular pattern design embossed on the glass has now gone. The classic font used on the Balblair labels has been replaced by some generic looking chunky font and that Balblair logo “B” in the swirling font, which appeared on the front label as well as embossed on the top of the cork stopper has also disappeared. (My guess is that they were concerned that people would get confused between Balblair and Bladnoch Lowlands distillery, which also utilises a large "B" for its logo).

It has been replaced by a rather abstruse looking geometric Aztec in style emblem which to me, resembles an android with revolving metal arms. (Another design connection to Samsung phones perhaps?).

I looked to the official website to gain some insight as to what this logo is supposed to represent and found the answer there. I quote:

“Our Highland home sits on an ancient Pictish gathering place; giving it an intriguing, mystical feel. The Picts gathered over 3,000 years ago, and like us, they were watched over by the solitary Clach Biorach standing stone which sits next to the distillery to this day. An iconic carved Z Rod marking bears witness to this rich history and is symbolised on each bottle of Balblair”.

So, looking up "The Clach Biorach Standing stone" on Wikipedia, lo and behold, we see the source of the logo, engraved into the ancient stone.

Wikipedia.com

As soon as I saw this, I was immediately reminded of the only other distillery which I am aware of, which also changed its branding logo to a symbol which is engraved on an ancient stone, situated close to the distillery.

That distillery is Glenmorangie which took its signet ring style logo from the nearby solitary “Hilton of Cadboll” Stone. This too is Pictish in origin and it cannot be a coincidence that Glenmorangie is the next closest distillery to Balblair, only 8 minutes’ drive and just four and a half miles down the road on the A9 in the Northern Highlands.

It looks perhaps, as if there has been some copycat marketing design ideas going on? This design similarity becomes even more apparent when we look at the back of the Balblair box where the Clach Biorach engraving has been digitally copied and pasted multiple times to make a rectangular block, resembling, ahem, a signet pattern perhaps?

Although the cork has also become slimmer (mores the pity), astonishingly, about the only thing which they haven’t changed in this rebranding is that ridiculous plastic seal that is melted around the cork. Obviously, someone up at corporate has a sense of humour (or lack of sense).

The bottle has employed a two-label design with the top label containing the logo and distillery name and the details for the actual expression (in this case, the 12-Year-Old), on the bottom label. To me, it looks as if two completely different teams designed these labels. The top label lacks imagination and resembles a Train Station signpost. The bottom label, not only in total contrast but in my opinion, a total clash of design styles, closely resembles a traditional Victorian Postage stamp design, complete with diagonal wavy lines and 3D Roman column style lettering.

Balblair Distillery Hand Bottling 16-Year-Old

Having made all these observations about the 2019 rebranding and repackaging, I found it fascinating that if you go to the distillery as of 2024, and purchase one of their distillery Hand bottlings, straight from the cask, the packaging is actually a hybrid / fusion of the old and new designs.

Even after five years, they are still using the old box design and the old bottles, but the box artwork and bottle labels use that new Piktish emblem, taken from the new design. So, we end up with the new Pictish logo on the labels but strangely, the cork retains the old “B” embossed design which the new logo was supposed to replace. Perhaps it was a design oversight, or more probably they still had 10,000 or so of the old cork stoppers sitting there in their stockroom which they had to use up.

I would really like to publish a review of this outstanding 16-Year-Old at some point, hopefully before I finish the bottle.

What’s That Round Black Sticker?

For those of you wondering what that black disk is doing at the back of the bottle, I'll explain. I ordered this whisky from the Paneco online spirits website (whose main store is in Eilat but has a warehouse handling online orders in central Israel). This black sticker is actually covering up the “HM Revenue & Customs UK Excise Duty” label and indicates that this bottle was originally destined for UK market but was redirected to Israel. I think this is specific to Paneco Group which independently imports spirits bypassing the official Israeli importer. Bottles bought in Israel from other stores, that is, sourced from the official importer, will obviously not have these "FOR THE UK MARKET" stickers.

Now, the only question left to answer is, with all this rebranding, has the signature flavour of Balblair as described above, changed as well? Let’s review this 12-Year-Old.

Balblair 12-Year-Old review

Appearance

So, if this 12-Year-Old (which don’t forget is bottled at natural colour), has been matured in Ex-Bourbon barrels and Charred Virgin American Oak, just like the Deanston Virgin Oak for instance, you would expect it to be a dark straw or richly oaked Chardonnay wine colour. This is in contrast to the old Vintage 05 which is a very pale straw, indicative of the use of refill Ex-Bourbon barrels for maturation.

Fascinatingly, the 12-Year-Old, instead of looking like the Deanston expression, possesses a pale straw colour. I decided to bring out my Vintage 05 and compare the two whiskies side-by-side. Remarkably, they look identical! I must admit, I had not expected this.

This is a great example of how useful it can be for the enthusiast when whisky is presented at Natural Colour. It really does convey really important information. In this case, the pale straw colour clearly indicates that those Virgin oak casks have not been heavily charred, in complete contradiction to the marketing department’s use of that “Double Fired” term, implying the use of super-heavy charring which would turn the whisky a dark brown colour. We see clearly, thanks to it being natural colour, that this isn't the case.

Moreover, it also indicates that those Ex-Bourbon barrels married with these Virgin oak casks, are probably Refill Ex-Bourbon, as had they been First-Fill, you would expect to see a richer colour from the whisky.

So, just from examining the colour of this 12-Year-Old and comparing it to the Vintage 05, matured in 2^nd and 3rd Fill Ex-Bourbon barrels, one can deduce that there does not seem to have been a radical departure in maturation philosophy at Balblair, despite the marketing shpil. Truly fascinating.

The thickness and movement of the tears in the inside of the glass clearly indicate that this whisky is Non-Chill-Filtered and bottled at a high abv. Had I had to guess, I would have thought it was higher than 46% abv, say 48% or more. After leaving the whisky sitting in the glass for 10 minutes you can certainly notice a slight Scotch mist with the whisky taking on a murky look. All good things.

On the Nose

Wow! What an impressive nose on this Balblair. Clean, sweet, fruity and oily.

Going more into detail: Lush yellow fresh fruits, Heather Honey, Honeysuckle, Moist Vanilla Sponge cake, Buttered Toast and sweet toasted wood spices.

There is a hint of bitterness in the background like lemon rind, perhaps? This isn’t a criticism, however. It adds to the complexity and character of the nose.

Tasting

It has a full body on the palette with aromas of Milky Fudge, Barley Sugar and Dundee fruit cake. This is a great start.

From the very first mouth feel, you immediately realise that this rebranded Balblair seems significantly different to the Vintage 05, the previous Balblair entry-level expression. Whereas the Vintage 05 was, upon first opening, light with an understated flavour which gradually increased in complexity in the bottle, over a period of a few months, this 12-Year-Old is full on rich and full bodied, even upon first opening.

Big and Juicy. Ripe yellow fruits, tropical fruit juices like pineapple and passion fruit, peach and apricots. Underneath the fruit is a lovely creamy banana ice cream. Cooking apples baked in the oven with honey, sultanas and golden syrup.

Holding the liquid in the mouth there are further layers of “Sabra” chocolate orange liquor. Milk Fudge tablets and Toffee Apple.

Finish

On the finish we have Heather Honey, creamy melt-in-the-mouth malty digestive biscuits and soft oaky spices which include chocolatey charred sweet wood, roasted coffee, sweet black pepper corns, bay leaf and stir-fried glazed ginger.

With all these flavours you would have thought that this whisky would have a long finish. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t short but isn’t as long as is suggested by its initial complexity. As such, I found the finish somewhat disappointing, especially when compared to the distillery exclusive 16-Year-Old, as mentioned earlier, where the finish seems to go on forever.

The Balblair 12 opens with an impressive array of flavours that you just assume will transform into an equally striking finish but instead falls off quicker than expected.

In my opinion, this is as a result of those ultra-active Virgin oak casks which will rapidly impart flavour into the spirit but lack the ability in only 12 years to fully impregnate these flavours deep into the whisky. Only a spirit matured in less active casks for 16 years or more has the capability of creating a long satisfying and rich finish.

Conclusions

I must apologise again for neglecting to review this lovely whisky earlier. I’m actually on my second bottle of this 12-Year-Old already this year, which is a pretty good indication that it gets my recommendation.

If anyone was thinking that this 12-Year-Old was a replacement for the old entry-level Balblair, the Vintage 05, then they might be a bit disappointed, but not by that much. You can definitely see the "yichus" (the family lineage), in this 12-Year-Old.

I’ve noticed that some online reviewers of the new Balblair core range have unfairly (in my opinion), reached the conclusion that there has been a radical change in cask maturation philosophy at Balblair (perhaps in part, due to the marketing statement about the use of “Double-Fired Virgin American Oak” casks?). Many assume the use of First-Fill Ex-Bourbon barrels and heavily charred Virgin barrel maturation for this 12-Year-Old. I think they are wrong!

Yes, the flavour profile has changed. The 12-Year-Old is more forthright and accessible when it comes to discovering those flavours compared to the Vintage 05. It’s from the get-go, richer and more flavoursome. However, it still maintains that North-Highlands light flavour profile, although some of the understatement and subtlety of the old Vintage statements has gone. The new core-range is a lot more approachable and will appeal to a wider audience.

Upon first opening the Vintage 90, 99, 03 and 05, there was a deceptive perception of a lack of flavour and character. However, these Balblairs were known to “mature” once opened and after a few months would reveal more complex flavours you never thought possible. My Vintage 05 has been opened for a couple of years now. Comparing this with the 12-Year-Old and you’d be forgiven for not being able to tell the difference between them. It's just that this 12-Year-Old simply gives you most of that classic Balblair distillery flavour almost from the neck pour.

I thought I was one of those stuck up Balblair purists who would be mourning the death of their Vintage bottlings for years to come. But, as much as I wanted to hate this 12-Year-Old, I simply can’t.

The Balblair 12-Year-Old represents excellent value for money with its impressive range of rich flavours, its premium look presentation and excellent integrity credentials. I would buy another bottle without hesitation and pour a dram of this Balblair whenever I wanted a solid North-Highlands single malt experience without having to work too hard chasing those wonderful Balblair flavours, as was the case with the old Vintage statement expressions.

The 12-Year-Old is not without its faults though. If you spend some time with it, there is some signs of immaturity and lack of character development. This is particularly noticeable in the finish. I really love the understated Balblair signature flavour but feel that it’s only really at its best after about 15 years of age, as clearly demonstrated by the 16-Year-Old Distillery exclusive, which frankly is absolutely superb. I would love it if Balblair were to bring out a 16-Year-Old fully Ex-Bourbon matured Single Malt as part of their core-range but fear that looking at the current state of the market, they’d probably price it at around £150.