balvenie 18 year single barrel?

a friend recently purchased a bottle of the balvenie 15 single barrel that we'll be enjoying this weekend. interestingly, he noted that according to the label it was put in cask in 1990 and bottled in 2008 effectively making it an 18 year. while i understand that longer aging does not necessarily make a whisky better, we can't help but feel that we got something of a bargain since it's an 18 year for the price of a 15!

i'm curious--is this practice of aging a whisky longer than advertised common with the balvenie or other distillers? it seems to make sense for the balvenie since their variations are aged in different types of wood the 15 aged in oak cannot simply be "held over" to make a portwood 21.

It isn't a common practice, but there was talk about quite a few barrels of Balvenie that made it out a few years older than the 15 yr label. Usually it just identifies the youngest whisky used to make that batch, but in this particular case you are dealing with only a single barrel. So yes, you got a bonus there. The Balvenie 15 is a nice whisky too.

With some products they will also take them out of the oak and put then into steel for some amount of time before bottling.

TimmyBoston said:

With some products they will also take them out of the oak and put then into steel for some amount of time before bottling.

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That's what they did with the A.H. Hirsch 16, isn't it?

boboakalfb said:

That's what they did with the A.H. Hirsch 16, isn't it?

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Yes indeed. That's the standard example, I almost cited it in my post. I think all or nearly all of their product came out of the oak in 1990 and they just finished bottling it not that long ago. Speaking of which I am so ticked I didn't buy more of it a few years ago when it was reasonably priced and now it's up to $500 a bottle.

TimmyBoston said:

Yes indeed. That's the standard example, I almost cited it in my post. I think all or nearly all of their product came out of the oak in 1990 and they just finished bottling it not that long ago. Speaking of which I am so ticked I didn't buy more of it a few years ago when it was reasonably priced and now it's up to $500 a bottle.

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The Fontana Bar at Bellagio in Vegas had Blue Wax Bottles in stock as of a year ago. They only charged $8 a drink I believe, which was a steal. A bargain in Vegas...pretty unheard of.

boboakalfb said:

The Fontana Bar at Bellagio in Vegas had Blue Wax Bottles in stock as of a year ago. They only charged $8 a drink I believe, which was a steal. A bargain in Vegas...pretty unheard of.

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nice! actually i happen to be heading to vegas this weekend--chances are it's long gone by now but it's worth a look!

cthip said:

nice! actually i happen to be heading to vegas this weekend--chances are it's gone by now but it's worth a look!

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Have fun! It's a great place to have a few drinks and enjoy the water show.

Since you are interested in Whisk(e)y, have you visited Beltramos or K&L in Menlo Park/Redwood City? If you haven't, I suggest you do.

thanks for the recommendation--have heard nothing but the best about beltramos and have always meant to go. someday i will.

i love to support local businesses, but when i have a bevmo walking distance (stumbling distance really!) from my place then sometimes it's hard to motivate myself to make a special trip someplace else.

EDIT: browsing their selection now--they have some great stuff for awesome prices! may have to check them out sooner than i had anticipated. . . .