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SMWS 48.116: Balmenach

“A wee powder keg” · Past release, no longer on sale
A wee powder keg - SMWS 48.116Sold outDec 2020
48.116

A wee powder keg

SMWS regionSpeyside
Age13 years
ABV57.3%
Outturn226 bottles
CaskRefill ex-bourbon barrel
SpiritMalt Whisky
Distillery from SMWS code 48
DistilleryBalmenach
RegionSpeyside

In short · Balmenach (Speyside), 13 years.

“We found this one to be much lighter initially than weve come to expect from this distillery.…”Extract · full tasting notes at SMWS

SMWS 48.116 is a single cask of Balmenach, in the Speyside region, 13 years old, bottled at 57.3%, released in the Dec 2020 Outturn. Every Society bottle numbered 48.x is from Balmenach.

How the price compares
At £59.20, this 13-year-old cost more than 2 of the 4 Balmenach bottlings aged 11–13 released 2021–2022 that we hold. They ranged from £57.10 to £59.70, with a median of £58.
Shaded: their range · line: this bottleRelease prices, not adjusted for inflation

Specs, price and tasting-note extract from the SMWS. Full notes on smws.com.

About Balmenach

Above the village of Cromdale, where the Spey runs cold and the Jacobites met defeat in 1690, Balmenach has quietly made whisky since 1824, one of the oldest distilleries in all of Speyside. It keeps to the old ways and the old character, a robust, weighty, faintly meaty make that blenders have long prized and that rewards the patient. These days the same site also turns out Caorunn gin, but the single malt remains a throwback, a big-boned Speysider with none of the modern polish. Under Inver House it works far from the tourist trail, which suits a distillery that has always let the spirit speak for itself.

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