The other sample I got sent from Whisky Center is The Brexiteer. A burnside blended malt, which we all know to be teaspooned Balvenie. Officially not a single malt but the amount of Glenfiddich in it is negligable, so it does taste like Balvenie.

Interestinly the label says it’s 28 years old but the math doesn’t check out, and it’s actually a 27 year old.

Burnside is also nowhere on the label, but it was mentioned in the tasting pack I got. I guess that’s smart since Burnside is a name mostly used by Cadenhead. Even Adelphi stopped using it after one or two bottlings, just to not claim someone else’s ‘brand name’.

Anyway, tasting notes!

Sniff:
Right off the bat there’s loads of barley, with dried lemon and moss. Slightly foresty, with ferns. Also some star fruit, and after a while there is old oak and earth.

Sip:
Dry on the palate, with white pepper for some heat. Dry oak shavings, star fruit and apple. Some white grapes too.

Swallow:
The finish shows more tree bark, less fruit and some wood spices. A bit mulchy even.

I would have expected a 27 year old Balvenie to be slightly more honey sweet than this one is. It might be that the honey-taste-receptors in my mouth had taken a day off of course, but it didn’t really show up. Then again, I don’t think that’s a bad thing because there’s quite a lot happening on the foresty-mulchy front, and I prefer slightly drier whiskies anyway.

In short, this is quite a good whisky, and for a 27 year old Balvenie quite acceptably priced at € 179 too.

88/100

Thanks a lot to DJK from Whisky Center for sending me the sample! Solid stuff!