William Grant & Sons-owned Scotch whisky brand The Balvenie has launched the Week of Peat 19 Year Old as a global travel retail-exclusive.
The limited-edition The Balvenie Week of Peat 19 Year Old is the latest addition to the brand’s Stories Collection. The Stories Range celebrates human stories with unexpected twists, as told by the craftsmen at The Balvenie’s distillery in Dufftown, Scotland.
The Week of Peat 19 Year Old expression was created by The Balvenie Malt Master’s Apprentice Kelsey McKechnie, under the stewardship of David C. Stewart MBE. The Week of Peat started in 2002, when Distillery Manager Ian Millar spotted a week’s gap in the distillery schedule.
He ordered a batch of Speyside peat and used traditional whisky crafting techniques, using smoke from a heavily peated furnace, to create a whisky that is rich in honey, vanilla and citrus notes. Now, for one week each year, The Balvenie creates peated whisky using Speyside peat.
“For a week a year, The Balvenie distils a batch of peated malt celebrating the traditional whisky making of the past. This adds an extra layer of peated intensity to our signatured honey character,” commented McKechnie.
“A 19 Year Old take on Balvenie’s delicately smoky Week of Peat, this expression has matured just a little longer in three separate types of casks resulting in a single malt rich in honey, vanilla and citrus notes with an extra layer of delicate smokiness. First-fill and refill American oak bourbon casks amplify the peat’s rich smokiness and draw out a syrupy sweetness while Oloroso sherry butts round it out with a new lingering taste of cinnamon and ginger spice.”
The Balvenie Stories Collection comprises three peated whiskies and the Creation of a Classic and The Tale of a Dog Aged 46 Years expressions.
The 19 Year Old expression follows the release of The Balvenie The Week of Peat 17 Year Old, which launched on William Grant & Sons-owned spirits ecommerce platform Clink*. The Week of Peat 14 Year Old launched in domestic markets in 2019.
The company said: “The travel retail sector continues to be an important growing channel for the brand and The Balvenie is well placed to deliver an authentic proposition that will appeal to and recruit a new generation of premium spirits drinkers into the category.
“We have taken a fresh look at the way our current range in global travel retail interacts with our domestic offering. We strongly believe that global travel retail should have an exclusive range of whiskies and that ‘age’ continues to be significant to our range.”
