This bottling of a 17-year-old Balvenie single malt as an original distillery bottling was produced under the name New Oak as a First Bottling Master Distillers Selection. The whisky matured in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, was married in fresh American oak casks and bottled in 2006.
In the immediate vicinity of its big neighbour Glenfiddich, the Balvenie distillery stands at the entrance to the secret Scotch whisky capital of Dufftown. It was built in 1892 by William Grant and his sons, and owes its name to the nearby Balvenie Castle.
The Speyside lies in the north-east of the Highlands and is considered the centre of Scotland's whisky production. Around the towns of Elgin, Rothes, Keith and Dufftown there are more distilleries than anywhere else in Scotland, including big names such as Glenfarclas, Glenlivet, Macallan and many more.
Elegance and complexity are often cited as characteristic features of Speyside malts, but the variety of whiskies produced here is too great to speak of a single style.
Scotland and Scotch whisky is a global trend, a development that has led to a flourishing whisky scene in Scotland. There is hardly a week that goes by in which there is no news about another new distillery being built or the reopening of a distillery that has been closed for a long time.
Scotland, together with Ireland, is today considered the motherland of whisky, whose roots there go back to around 1500 AD.
This bottling of a 17-year-old Balvenie single malt as an original distillery bottling was produced under the name New Oak as a First Bottling Master Distillers Selection. The whisky matured in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, was married in fresh American oak casks and bottled in 2006.
In the immediate vicinity of its big neighbour Glenfiddich, the Balvenie distillery stands at the entrance to the secret Scotch whisky capital of Dufftown. It was built in 1892 by William Grant and his sons, and owes its name to the nearby Balvenie Castle.
The Speyside lies in the north-east of the Highlands and is considered the centre of Scotland's whisky production. Around the towns of Elgin, Rothes, Keith and Dufftown there are more distilleries than anywhere else in Scotland, including big names such as Glenfarclas, Glenlivet, Macallan and many more.
Elegance and complexity are often cited as characteristic features of Speyside malts, but the variety of whiskies produced here is too great to speak of a single style.
Scotland and Scotch whisky is a global trend, a development that has led to a flourishing whisky scene in Scotland. There is hardly a week that goes by in which there is no news about another new distillery being built or the reopening of a distillery that has been closed for a long time.
Scotland, together with Ireland, is today considered the motherland of whisky, whose roots there go back to around 1500 AD.
