The Noble Dram | The Balvenie - Curious Peat (Season 2 | Ep. 19)

🥃 Can you taste tradition? That's the question we're exploring as we step inside one of Scotland's most iconic distilleries, The Balvenie.

After touring the distillery firsthand, we're sharing what makes The Balvenie unlike almost any other Scotch producer. From the legendary Five Rare Crafts to the people who have preserved traditional whisky making for more than 130 years, this episode is all about the balance between craftsmanship, tradition, and innovation.

Along the way, we're pouring two incredible expressions:
🥃 The Balvenie Curious Casks
🔥 The Balvenie Week of Peat

Join us as we discuss:
• What makes The Balvenie truly unique
• Why craftsmanship still matters in modern whisky
• The Five Rare Crafts that set Balvenie apart
• Can you actually taste tradition?
• Does innovation strengthen—or challenge—a distillery's identity?
• Our tasting notes and final rankings of Curious Casks and Week of Peat

Whether you're new to Scotch or a lifelong whisky enthusiast, this episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at a distillery that continues to do things the hard way, for all the right reasons.

🥃 Have you visited The Balvenie or tried either of these expressions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

👍 If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and Ring the Bell so you never miss a pour.

Slàinte!

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📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8iND2s4g7Es

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Transcript

Aaron 0:00

Today's modern distilleries are a wonder of industrial engineering, a lattice of pipes and cables and computers that automate every little detail.

Gavin 0:11

But could you imagine a distiller from the 1800s getting transplanted into that same distillery? They wouldn't have a bloody clue what's going on.

Aaron 0:21

Unless he found himself at the Balvenie distillery, a place where whiskey is crafted the exact same way it was a hundred plus years ago. Welcome everyone to this week's episode of the Noble Dream. Aaron and Gavin here to take you on a little bit of a whiskey journey this week. No, no, no, no. Not just a journey. An adventure. All right, you can come with us. It's an adventure. All right, so this week we're highlighting the Balvenie distillery. Or is it Balvenie? Or Balvenie. We'll get into that later. Or just a foreshadowing of a discussion to come. All right, so this one is a break from the norm for me. Because Gavin's actually been on the hollowed grounds of the Balvenie distillery. Gavin has insight that only a select few have. And I'm not one of those select few. VIP right here. So tonight, Gavin's actually taking us on a journey of Balvenie, and I am along for the ride, if you will.

Gavin 2:07

He has no idea where we're going, and I'm really gonna enjoy this. I'm not even sure I know I'm not even sure I'm saying it right. Well, we'll dive into that here in just a minute. But before we do that, I think we need a glass in our hand to really dive into the distillery.

Aaron 2:25

Literally, the only thing I'm supposed to do in tonight's episode is pour whiskey, and he makes me do it right out of the gates. So I'm gonna take a nap for the rest of the time. All right. Bottle number one. Bottle number one. What are we doing? Numero Uno is the Balvenie's Curious Cask.

Gavin 2:45

Very curious about this one.

Aaron 2:47

As am I. This happens to be the 14-year American bourbon. This is story number 10 is what it says on the label. Ooh. Um implying there are a lot of sorry, this is taking me longer to open than I expected. Uh implying that there are a lot of other stories. So um I'll be honest though, I doing my research on all the various curious casks and stories, um, I couldn't find 10 of them. Uh, and so we can discuss that as well. For sure. All right, so this clocks in at 14 years of age, an ABV of 47.8. My favorite part of the episode where we put Gavin on the spot for math, that is I wrote it down 95.6 proof. Look at you. This is a single cask release. Um, what what makes it curious is the real question. And so this one on top of aged solely ex- Bourbon barrels, this one is actually distilled the dark the week immediately following. They're peated run. Oh, well, that's so. Although this isn't peat head, this is run through all of the equipment that had lingering peat uh still in the system. So each one of these curious casts, there's a like I said, there's a a a number of releases. Here in the US market, there are two. Uh on the global portion of the Above Any website, um, there are seven different releases shown. There are, however, a story that goes with each, and this one is labeled story number 10. In addition, the stories can be found on their podcast channel, the distilleries podcast channel, I should say, not ours. I we we've gotten past 10, but not all of them above any.

Gavin 5:02

Maybe we'll put it in a link in the description.

Aaron 5:05

Yeah, we well, so here's my problem. I went digging for this because I was like, this sounds cool. What better way to prepare? Then instead of reading, I get to listen. So I'm totally on board. And I go digging, and there's only nine episodes of the podcast, and none of them are specifically about this bottle. So I was still digging into the research. The one task you gave me, I was unsuccessful at. Um for shame. So, yeah, this one, this one gets to be fun for me. This was a brand new barrel or brand new bottle, I should say, for me. Opened it here tonight with everyone. So that's what I know. I I won't I won't claim to know a whole lot about it. Now, I will say Balvenie is one of those that I think a lot of people are familiar with the distillery. Probably familiar with their two primary releases, but really historically it was the one. That's correct. Right? Um and then and then along came the Caribbean cask, and then like everyone I know loves that one too. So yes, absolutely. So but I don't want to I don't want to steal all your thunder. I want you to tell us a little bit about the distillery.

Gavin 6:21

Yes, let's talk a little bit about the distillery. So you mentioned, or we both mentioned a little bit, how to pronounce the name because I've said it wrong, I have heard other people say it wrong, and if you didn't know, it's not the "Baalvini". It's not the Vinny or the Ven. It's the Balvenie.

Aaron 6:49

So V Venn is way better sounding than all. I was afraid you were gonna tell me is I've been mispronouncing it. It's "Balveiny". Well, there is that. That doesn't sound right. I don't like that.

Gavin 7:04

You don't like Veiny. Okay, got it.

Aaron 7:07

Got it. All right, episode's over. We're done. We're done. We're not going on any further moves. No, we're finished. We're finished.

Gavin 7:15

All right, so um, all right, so so how do you know that's how it's pronounced? Because I have, as you said, stepped foot on the hollowed ground of the distillery. I have had the privilege of hearing the same people that make this whiskey possible.

Aaron 7:39

So this is a debate, and I it's a little bit of a side tangent. Like every time we pronounce something that is Gaelic, it's wrong, right? It's what I figured out. Um, very even when we tell people, no, no, no, this is how to do it, somebody tells us, you know, that's not right. I wonder how much of pronunciation of Gaelic is like different accents here in the United States, at which the guy from Boston says car different than I do, right? Um whether you are Southern Louisiana and Cajun, or you are Californian or New Yorkan or the classic Midwest drawl, the heavy southern bell kind of act. Like we got a lot of different ways to say the same words. So part of me is always wondered do we are we arguing semantics? And it just happens to be this is the area in which I live, and that's how everybody here pronounces it, but you go to a different town, and it's not the same.

Gavin 8:50

Well, what I will say is what was unique about living in Scotland, I didn't think about the fact that people that live in the city in Scotland that are Scottish sound different than the people that live out in the country in Scotland. Just like in America, just like where I grew up, I grew up in a small farm town. We sound different than say a big city does.

Aaron 9:15

Once you say that, it's like, yeah, obviously. Yeah, like but it's one of those like you haven't really put that into words, so it doesn't quite click until you say, like, well, yeah, now that I say it, it sounds dumb that I ever thought of it any other way than that.

Gavin 9:28

Yeah, like I it shocked me to to to hang out with some of the folks that my wife worked with, and it's like, oh, where where are you from? They're like, I, you know, I'm from this area of Scotland. And it's like, oh, that's more in the country, um, in the wild versus in the city. Yeah, in the wild. I mean, I grew up in the wild. Well, so I I get I can say that.

Aaron 9:50

I think the other part tends to be is that you go visit a place, and whoever it is that tells you about something, like that's that's you just assume that that's accurate because they're from there, right? And then you drive around Texas and talk, ask people about Texas stuff, and you realize like half of us disagree on the Texas stuff. So just having been from there is in no way indication is that that's fair a level of accuracy. That's fair. That's fair.

Gavin 10:19

So we are legends in our own minds.

Aaron 10:21

If if you're at home thinking these guys are idiots, that's not how you pronounce this. Maybe. Maybe we're idiots. Maybe that is how you pronounce it. I'm not making a claim either direction.

Gavin 10:32

All right. Well, let's get back to a little bit more of the distillery. Um, first and foremost, uh, I don't want this to be a huge history lesson about the distillery. I think there's tons of information out there about the distillery and the history. I want to dig into a couple finer points as we move along, but I did want to say a few facts, kind of a little bit about the distillery. One, it was founded in um 1892 by uh William Grant. So William Grant and Sons still are owners. Uh fifth generation. Did I see something like that? I'm not sure exactly what generation it is at this point.

Aaron 11:16

Yeah, so really it should now be called William Grant and Sons and Sons and Sons and Sons and Sons, and probably a couple daughters in there along the way, too. If you're if we're mapping out the story, but you know.

Gavin 11:28

Um, it is located in Dufftown, Scotland, not Duft, not Duff Town, as one would look at the name and see Dufftown. All right. Um beautiful, beautiful area. Um it's what you could say, sister distillery, or one of them is uh the Glen Fiddich, which is just down the road. Um, and uh the Kininvie, correct?

Aaron 11:54

Yeah, I I got the impression looking at the map when you say just down the road, um like it's one big campus. Yes, like you don't realize it's not like well, you you leave and then drive a half a mile down the road or 0.6 kilometers or whatever that would be in the metric system, like it's not that far down the road. It's really not, it's really not like they're they've got that shared mailbox with two mailboxes and one po on one post out front. Yeah, they're that close.

Gavin 12:23

Um as we mentioned, I did have the opportunity to go um to the distillery, absolutely loved it. Um, what I will say is before we even dive into a lot of what we're gonna talk about tonight, it is by far the best distillery tour I've ever been on to date. Um, and no offense to anybody else, and I've got many more to go to. Uh, this distillery tour to date was probably the least commercialized touristy um distillery tour that I've been on. Um, we started out um in a little cottage, pretty much on site on campus, um, where um you walk in and it's like sofas, leather sofas, and a really cool coffee table. They brought us, you know, uh tea and coffee, and it was just a really cool experience. You felt like you were sitting in somebody's home.

Aaron 13:24

The implication is that what makes a quality distillery tour is comfortable leather chairs and and snacks. Yeah, it's a great way to start a distillery tour. If you've got to wait on a tour, there are way worse ways to wait.

Gavin 13:38

I mean, would you rather go into a noisy um, you know, like a metal warehouse? That's where I want to hang. Yeah, that's like for sure.

Aaron 13:47

Like with no channel standing up for you know.

Gavin 13:51

Got it. Got it. No, nowhere, nowhere Aaron wants to be. Um, no, but it was just a really cool experience to go sit in that uh cottage, um, sip some tea and some coffee before heading out and actually diving into the distillery. And then it's a limited number of people that go on each tour, um, which makes it even better because you feel like it's like a one-on-one uh type of experience. So what I would say is above anything else, if you have an opportunity in Scotland, go to the Balvenie distillery and try to try to hit the true the tour. But you have to sign up before you go. Um, so we reserve tickets, I don't know, months before we went.

Aaron 14:36

Well, let's just say that this is probably a good bit of advice. You probably shouldn't just start showing up at distilleries and be like, I hope we get in today. That feels like a plan for failure.

Gavin 14:49

There was actually uh two folks, I think it was two or one, that tried that on our um on our on our tour. Did they go on the tour with you? They they we made room for them.

Aaron 14:59

Oh, for God's sakes, you can't be doing that.

Gavin 15:02

But we had to snuggle up a little bit because what they do is they uh uh part of the tour is you pack into like a Land Rover, a modified Land Rover, and then they drive you around to different parts of the city. Part over for a horse-drawn carriage.

Aaron 15:16

Well, I'll be honest. Maybe the more it was our vintage 1892 Land Rover? Yeah, yeah, I get you.

Gavin 15:24

Um so uh the bits of tidbits of bits of tidbits, if that even makes sense, information um that I have uh firsthand was able to be on the the tour, got to meet some fine folks over there. Shout out to Charlie, who I believe is the global brand ambassador um currently for the distillery. Uh he's who actually gave us our tour when we were there. Nice. So yeah. Way to go, Charlie. Way to go, Charlie. Uh so Charlie, give me a call. I'd love to chat. Um one of the things I think I left a jacket there, Charlie, if you've still got it. It had the Balvenie on it.

Aaron 16:04

I'm a yeah, you know, you got a box of miscellaneous swag you're trying to get rid of.

Gavin 16:09

Yeah, it's jacket, shirts, bottles of whiskey. Just let me know.

Aaron 16:14

Speaking of swag, is this a at the distillery purchase? Or is this a subsequent online purchase? It's subsequent online purpose. Um it is it is a dapper-looking shirt, though. I I mean it's no noble dram, but I mean I get it.

Gavin 16:31

Maybe maybe we just need to get noble dram just really big.

Aaron 16:34

We are we are only about 120 years behind. We'll get there.

Gavin 16:39

One day, one day. Uh, so one of the main things that I wanted to talk about tonight is tradition and craftsmanship, because the Balvenie is famous for their craftsmanship and the way that they approach the whiskey making process.

Aaron 17:00

Yeah, I mean we we hinted at it earlier, right? This idea that um they have to some extent pushed back from modernization, so to speak, and tried to continue to craft in an old way, if that's a fair way to put it. Um or traditional way. Yeah, for them it's certainly a tradition now, right? Like you do it for a hundred plus years, and that feels very tradition-y. So I do something about three or four times, it feels like now it's a tradition.

Gavin 17:35

We have to, it's a family tradition. Uh so with that being said, do you think the way you make whiskey uh actually matters? Like the traditional thinking or traditional way of making whiskey versus an automation computer generated, do you do you think that that actually has any impact to the whiskey?

Aaron 18:03

Yeah, I mean I think we live in a world that wants to say precision is key, engineered, science will prevail, but yet the most profound things I've ever been a part of were always artistry. Right? It was it was the creation and craftsmanship. Um I the part I always struggle with is that you you start with a variable, right? Growing season on the grain is different, sugar content, um, moisture levels, like all of that kind of stuff varies. And then you try to apply the same process every time, you'll ultimately always get slightly varied results, right? Ver change in input, change in output. Um so I think there needs to be a bit of artistry to what they do. Um now, does that mean you can't use science to guide the art? Like I'm I'm okay, I'm an engineer, right? Like of course I'm I like the engineering side. Um I think what what has always wowed me is because I'm not an artist in the traditional sense, the ability to create art has always been admired in my heart because it's it's not something that I have like give me an equation that balances and I love it, right? Um when I when I sit down to do work, I I do a very good job of making everything line up and and be repeatable, and we can we can do it again tomorrow and it come out the exact same. And and you say, let's let's do something random. Like I really struggle with this. I we were years ago, we were hanging some pictures on the wall, and and we said, Well, yeah, we kind of want it to look random, like just kind of a hodgepodge of stuff thrown up. And so I went through and started and I'm measuring to make sure that they're not the same as anything else. And I get back and realize it's almost a mere image where I've created symmetry because the amount off on one side I made off on the other side. Um yeah, like my inline. My my inherent being falls towards that strict order and not into the chaos of art. And and so for that I admire that. So I like the fact that whiskey is made the way it was. That's what makes us such a good duo. Why?

Gavin 20:36

Because you like order and because I'm a bit of an artist, I'm a bit of an artist in one in one sense, and you're the more engineer analytical kind of guy.

Aaron 20:50

And I listen, I I appreciate the beauty of both. Right? Um you some of some of my favorite art pieces are like optical illusions, where the science of what you're doing creates the art, right? And so I'm I'm not saying those are completely utterly independent, but the fact that somebody can spend time learning a craft, not the not necessarily focusing on the theory of why it should, but focusing on the how and why it does. Maybe it'd be a better way to put that. Um I've been a huge proponent of this idea of betterment through um apprenticeship and and creating and learning a craft, ex especially for me as I've gotten older. Like I I feel this calling to take the knowledge I've managed to accumulate over the years and like how do I how do I better the next generation of guys coming up behind me to to get into Um doing what I do, right?

Gavin 22:02

I just imagine you with like a wizard hat has canned off.

Aaron 22:07

This is Professor Aaron talking. I need the tweed jacket with the leather patches.

Gavin 22:12

Ah, yes, you did. We're gonna get you a tweed jacket.

Aaron 22:15

Oh my god, could you imagine how hot that would be in Houston, Texas? Oh, I because I've got a few, so I totally understand.

Gavin 22:21

There is no chance I fit into a tweed jacket of years. So uh a couple things that you mentioned that I want to touch on. You mentioned craft and a printer prints the ship. I can't even say it. Hey man, you're an artist, you're not an English major. I'm getting it. Um so uh a couple of things, not just a couple, five things that the Balvenie really um have made famous for themselves is the five rare crafts.

Aaron 22:51

Yeah, it's kind of the pillar by which their business model or production model is based, right?

Gavin 22:58

Which is growing their own barley. It's floor malting. So go back and check the malting episode, the malt episode that we did for Scotch for Starters. If you don't know what malt is, uh we talk a bit about that.

Aaron 23:12

For shame. You should have already watched that. It was weeks ago.

Gavin 23:15

But if you miss it, go get it after this episode. Cooperage, uh, which we'll touch on that, coppersmith, and a malt master. I believe today the only distillery in Scotland that has all five of the rare crafts is the Balvenie. At least it was. I don't know if it still is.

Aaron 23:36

Do that themselves. Right. Ultimately, all distilleries have to have all of these things. The question is, do you outsource it to somebody else, or do you have a craftsman on staff internally that handles it? Yes. And and the truth of the matter was, back in the day, I sound old when I say that, but back in the day, if you wanted to run a distillery, you needed to have all of these, right? Um, this was before you could just call up a local malting company and have them send you malted grains. Like you, you had to malt it yourself. And part of what you needed to do is you needed to have a cooper on staff that could assemble and fix your barrels over the over their life. Like all of these tasks were essential to to creating the bottle, right? Or sorry, at least creating the whiskey that's in the bottle.

Gavin 24:32

Well, now you just brought in a whole nother craft. Glass blowing. Yep.

Aaron 24:38

I'm gonna go over that. I'm gonna go ahead and sixth uh craft to Balvenie, and then all the bottles will look like garbage as I try to learn how to blow the plastic.

Gavin 24:49

Give it a shot. Uh that is actually a craft that um I'm really big on watching some glass blowing on YouTube. There's a couple channels I follow. This is so intriguing.

Aaron 25:03

I again, it's one of those, it's a it's an art, right? Like it's a it's the the term here is craft, right? Which I think kind of goes hand in hand. Um maybe the question is what how do you differentiate an art from a craft? In my in my head, it feels like art's something to just be enjoyed, like visually, aesthetically, but a craft is something that is useful and beautiful. Yeah, I I would kind of that's the Aaron definition, not Miriam or Webster.

Gavin 25:39

That's the Aaron definition. Um, so as we're talking through those, uh the question I have is does modern technology provide or produce whiskey just as well outside of the five crafts? Can automation, can outsourcing, um all of the the just push a button, no hating over here, right? I'm an equal opportunity whiskey lover.

Aaron 26:14

Yeah, but as a guy who owns a pellet grill, I get I get that I get that dynamic, right? I so the the question is at what point have you removed the sole to the product, right? I would absolutely argue if you only do copper work once every so often to maintain your still, you could actually get a greater level of knowledge and artistry by being a place that builds, does copper work all the time, right, to get better. So you could make an argument there would be some aspects of production that actually get better without sourcing because you have condensed the expertise, right? As opposed to being distributed. Ultimately, though, what I think some of that does is if one guy makes everybody still and he has worked towards making what he deems to be the perfect still, ultimately a lot of different brands start to taste alike because they all have the same kind of still. Right. If one company malts all the barley, everybody starting with the same blend of malted barley, right? That some of the beauty of some of the soul of one bottle to the next is that they aren't the same. There is differences. So can science usurp that? I think the answer is yeah. That's part of part of the world we live in, is that some of the soul is inherently lost in the name of efficiency or cost reduction or um volume production, right? Can be another one. Um that you you say, well, if everybody had to handcraft every single bottle, I don't know as if I could afford nearly as much scotch as I get to have now, right? So part of the benefit of the engineering and the science behind it, it is far more readily available. Um if every one of these needed to be loaded on a clipper ship and I had to wait months for the barrel to get over, it'd be a whole different game, right? So that being said, I would absolutely say there are aspects to this that I think science actually helps. But I'll say the more science helps, the more I cling to those little subtle differences that the artistry and craftsmanship create. Um yeah, we we don't we don't sit and talk about how much we enjoy scotch, we talk about how much we enjoy scotches.

Gavin 29:06

Uh yeah.

Aaron 29:07

Right? It's what we enjoy is the differences from one to the next, right? And it's not that they're all the same. So I I'd say science has made it more cost-effective and more available, and thus has created some of the passion for whiskeys for me. But yet at the same time, I keep falling back to the artistry that that divides everything.

Gavin 29:31

I think that there is a fine, I mean, there's a balance, right? I mean, it's just like anything else these days. Um, just like a a car. One of the things that I love about the Balvenie is they have several stories. They've teamed up with people like Anthony Bourdain on the rare craft mini docuseries. They've teamed up with Quest Love on a newer version of that. They've teamed up with um a few other folks. One of the things that they did, um, and I'm not a gearhead, but they there is a car um in made in the UK that I absolutely love. And it's the Morgan Motor Company. They are gorgeous cars, and they are handmade, gorgeous cars. So the Balvenie, in their craft series and all of that that they do and produce, they actually had a Morgan built for them. And they showed going through that process of it being built and even going into the hand-stitched seats and leather and like all of that fun stuff, right? And then they they drove it around, they even brought it to the United States and they drove it around the United States, which was pretty cool. Um, but thinking about the craftsmanship in just to say an automobile, right? How our cars today are mostly built. It's essentially, yeah, right. Thank you, Mr.

Aaron 31:10

Ford. Um the difference, again, the cars don't have the same kind of soul and the same, like they're not unique individual pieces like they used to be, but I can afford one.

Gavin 31:24

Exactly. I can't afford a Morgan, and I would love one.

Aaron 31:27

Morgan, call me if you've got a old box of Morgan cars sitting around you don't want, call Gavin. I'd love one. Um, I'm just imagining somebody so I was like, I got a junker old one. I don't want if you have if you want it.

Gavin 31:43

In Houston, yeah, probably so. There's probably somebody that has one somewhere. Um, okay. So are when we talk about the craftsmanship like the Balvenie, and there's a story behind it, do you think that sometimes we fall victim of the story? Or do you think that the story helps it and it's intriguing and it makes you want to buy that bottle?

Aaron 32:15

Yeah, I I mean let's be honest. There is always a part of whiskey that is marketing and sales, right? Like those those obviously go hand in hand. How does the bottle look? What is its price point? A lot of it has less to do with what's in in the bottle and more to do with how hard it is to get that one or um how attractive it is to the eye, right? Like the liquor store is designed to catch your eye and make you want to pick something up, right? It's like fishing lures, right?

Gavin 32:58

Exactly.

Aaron 32:58

That's what they are.

Gavin 32:59

This smells much better than a fish lure.

Aaron 33:01

No, and so can we get suckered into that's such a good story that we like something more because of the story? Absolutely. I mean, it's not even a question. It's one of the reasons why I enjoy doing blind tastings because you eliminate a huge chunk of why we bought bottles and then really get to enjoy just whiskey. Um it's I think of it as the equivalent of like putting on noise canceling headphones and you can't hear all the chaos for a minute, and you just get to be in that uh that moment. Um same thing with whiskeys. I the hard part is always being able to do to separate that. But ultimately, do you want it separated? Right? Like I think it's I think it's fun to to really blindfold yourself and really taste what's in the bottle, right? It it's a lot of fun. But at the end of the day, part of the enjoyment in it is the story. So there's nothing wrong with enjoying the story. Even when we know that the story's probably not true, we still love the story, right?

Gavin 34:22

It's the the fish was this big, I swear.

Aaron 34:25

Yeah, but I mean Yeah, a bit. I the truth often falls short of the story we love. Right? I that's why the movie is based on a true story. It's not the true story. True story isn't as good as the based on a true story. I so yes, I I think that occurs too with whiskey, or it occurs with food and it occurs with like everything has got a story behind it, and it especially us, you know, in in the in the states with the the stories of the bourbon guys, right? And this guy claims he created it before this guy created like I does it matter ultimately at the end of the day. I can I'll probably catch hell for this. Does it matter if Scotland made whiskey before Ireland or Ireland made it before Scotland? No, I'm not drinking any of that stuff, anyways, right? The reality is I enjoy what they make today, right? But man, it's fun to talk that story.

Gavin 35:28

Yeah. I mean, there was distilled spirits happening probably all over the place, and we just don't know about it. It wasn't written down, it wasn't um you know, I I think some of those tales of where whiskey started, it's like, okay, yeah, that's the first time it was written down, but and who knows?

Aaron 35:53

There's life all over this planet, right? Like the the argument over who created it now is not actually who created it. The argument now is who can find a record that's older that talks about it being created. But that doesn't mean you were the first to do it, right? It just means the first one that got written down or the oldest one that got written down, right? Like we not not even saying it hadn't gotten written down before then, anyways.

Gavin 36:18

Right. All right. Do we need to talk about this whiskey? Let's talk about this whiskey. Your bottle, so I guess I gotta go first. Wait.

Aaron 36:26

Here's what I'll say. A lot of times when we do this, if it's your bottle, you'll crack it open and put a pour in just so like as you're getting ready, you kind of get yourself in the mindset, get um get lost in that story, if you will. But this one was a new one, so I I had not had a chance to try this. So this is as blind of taste as we'll get. Gavin, you you had the Nick pour. We all know that doesn't matter.

Gavin 36:54

Or does it? It's a whole nother debate.

Aaron 36:57

It's not it's not it's not really a debate, it doesn't matter. But go on. All right. I I want to hear I want to hear what did you what did you pick up on the nose on this one?

Gavin 37:05

On the nose, um, I think that it has a lot of the same characteristics that I get on a um kind of a standard offering from the Balvenie.

Aaron 37:17

It was intended to be, right? And then they went back and started tasting barrels and they're like, wait a second, this one's different. Dare I say it was they were curious about it, right? And went back went back and looked. Curious George. So I yeah, I I I think the idea that you're picking up on classic Balvenie hints. Did you say the Balvenie? Did I say Balvenie? You did Balvenie, Balvenie, Balv- Balvenie, Giorgio Armani. I I kind of want to say Balveiny again. Um no, so you would. I here's one of the here's one of the things that I find interesting. This actually reminds me a lot of the 12-year single cask. Because the Balvenie that we normally drink is the double wood, which is a sherry finish on it. And this doesn't have any of that sherry. This has got much more of the light bourbon honey uh kind of notes that show up on it. So it reminds me a bit of the single cask, which is also traditional American oak, which we know that that means bourbon. Maybe not first fill, but bourbon, right?

Gavin 38:37

Correct. Sweet honey. I think there's some vanilla notes to it on the nose. I think there's a bit of an orangey citrus that I got on it. Um, and I wrote sweet down again. I think on the nose, it was just really sweet to me.

Aaron 38:53

See, when I when I first put my nose in there, I got earthiness. There's just a hint of peat on the nose. And then I wrote down leather, not heavily leathered, but very light leather note. Um, and then I too had honey and sweetness and like that kind of stuff, but um like faint faint leather. Okay.

Gavin 39:12

Not it's like uh not a dark tanned baseball glove, but it's like a leather saddle that you may have gotten some orange juice on or something. I don't know. These these get out of hand. On the palate, do you stay the same or does it does it carry on you? I think you said a couple things um on the nose. I put earthy on the palate. I think it's got that traditional kind of cereal grain note to it. Um there is a slight smoke. I'm just chicken stuff off of my life to be.

Aaron 39:44

Um yeah, that's that's really where I where I went. The only thing I would add to that is I picked up pear on the palate. The sweetness actually subdued just a little bit away from the more sugary version honey and softened into more like a fruit sweetness to me. Um, but yeah, I mean just a wisp of smoke, a little bit of a little bit of um that earthiness, and I really, especially as I came back to it repeatedly, I got more and more and more of the malty grain notes on the palate. But not a dry side of malty grains, but like the sweeter side of multi grains. Yeah, yeah. All right.

Gavin 40:31

On the finish, um, I went kind of a a medium, long, medium finish. It's warm. There's a drying nature to it, and then I put a crisp apple down with this.

Aaron 40:50

I there was a sharper, spicier kind of tinge to it at the beginning. And I'm still not positive I feel perfect in writing it down. But um if you if you've ever had a dish that just needed acidity, not necessarily citrus, just needed something, whether it's just almost apple cider vinegar-esque, that's got that that sharp edge to it, but still has got a fruit kind of thing. Just the ever and I I I'm so hesitant to say it because like I think it paints this picture of just being overly tart because you start thinking about all the stuff that's got, but you you make a good barbecue sauce, it needs just a little bit of that to cut through the the cloying sweetness, right? Like that sharp edge to it, and it's got just a hint of that on the finish. And then all of the things we've been talking about. There's honey, there's like a golden crisp apple, right? Like that not overly sugary red, delicious, but not quite tart yet either. That kind of in the middle. Um, yeah, and as I sit here, the the maltiness carries, right? Kind of finishes the I'm I'm somewhat surprised that I picked up on more peat notes, the earthy smokiness on the palate than I did on the finish. Heated whiskies almost always are the other way around to me. That I get a lot of peat on the nose and I get a lot of peat on the finish, but the palate tends to be where the peat all disappears. And this one kind of inverted all of that, um, which I found intriguing. All right. You gotta put a number to it. Okay, all right. All right, give it to us 89. 89. That's a signed score. Yes, that's a delicious one. Tell us why why so high?

Gavin 42:55

So um, we maybe should have level set a little bit. So the Balvenie is one of those scotches that you can't recognize in a blind tasting.

Aaron 43:06

We've we figured that out already. I know where you're going with this. You're gonna talk about how it's one of your favorites.

Gavin 43:10

It is, it is.

Aaron 43:11

Tell him to find out, he has no idea what it is like.

Gavin 43:14

If you remember, in that episode, I said I was wanting to go somewhere different, so I went a little different than what I'd normally go to. So the Balvenie Doublewood 12 year is like my house scotch, it's what I have all the time. Half the time I pour it in a decanter just because I drink it so much. It is one of my all-time favorites. So um I can't, I I can't recommend it enough. I've never had a bad expression from the Belvin. So um, high 89 for me. I want it on my shelf. I think it's something that um it's a shame we can't get it anymore.

Aaron 43:55

I well, for me, I can. No, so so. What I will say is bottles appear to still be available. I'm not sure how you get. I'm assuming this was multiple single barrels. I don't. There certainly appears to be way more, unless this was one hell of a barrel. This appears to be more than just one single barrel, but they are single barrels. Um, so yeah, I think you can still stumble into these. I believe, I believe the Balvenie website allowed you to purchase them uh from the website. So uh race out and get one. I could not have agreed more, but I'm at an 88. 88. Um I this has so much of what is wonderful about space, bourbon-aged, light, florally, fruity, honey, like all of that stuff, but it's got just that little, just that little hint um of the peat in there that I really, really enjoy. Um, yeah, so that I think I think it was that little bit of twist that that moved it from the mid-80s to the upper 80s to me. So yeah, excellent, excellent bottle. Um, I do not regret purchasing this one.

Gavin 45:12

Well, I am extremely happy that you bought this because then I get to now enjoy it now that it is really truly opened. I've been waiting for this one to be opened.

Aaron 45:22

So super stuck. An absolute treat for everyone around. So, yes, the Balvenie's Curious Cask, 14-year American bourbon barrel age single barrel. Gavin gives it an 89. I give it the 88. And now it is time to head off to bottle number two. In the meantime, see what Gavin did when he was on vacation.

Gavin 45:50

Touring the Balvenie, you realize it's not chasing trend, it's preserving tradition. For more than 130 years, generations of craftsmen have kept traditional whiskey making alive. Walking the distillery, you don't just see history, you feel it. That's the soul of the Balvenie.

Aaron 46:08

Certainly hope you enjoyed a little glimpse of the behind the scenes Gavin trip to Balvenie.

Gavin 46:14

So vacate, as you were.

Aaron 46:16

Yeah. Who doesn't love a vacation picture? I'm just glad you didn't have on a slideshow and you're just sitting there talking about it.

Gavin 46:22

I thought you were gonna say a speedo. You never know what happens on vacation.

Aaron 46:27

I didn't notice a pool in any of the pictures, to be honest. No, no pool, just taking the tour in a speedo. All right. Um, we we both thoroughly enjoyed this one, and I'll be honest, I have really high hopes for bottle number dose. Um, but it's more importantly, it's my favorite part of every episode. What's that? My favorite part of the episode is when you start pouring whiskey for me to drink. I, you know what? I can do that. And and this one's a fun one because I've not had this release. I've had other releases of this, other editions, other years of this release, but not this one specifically. So I'm excited.

Gavin 47:07

Well, this one actually hails from the distillery because I bought it when I was there.

Aaron 47:14

Oh so this one is this is this is real Scottish juice.

Gavin 47:18

Yeah, this is none of that going over on a boat or on a plane except for in my luggage. Uh, this is the Balvenie 14-year week of peat. So I hope you cleared your palate from the first delicious bottle.

Aaron 47:38

I was confused because I thought you said Wick of Peatia. And so I've been spending all this time looking up Balvenie on Wikipedia. Oh, and this is Wick Week of Pete, not Wick of Peatia. Yes, uh, yeah, I totally misunderstood. Yeah, we had a bad connection on the phone, evidently. Bad connection here in all this is a this is like a 700. This is a little one. Oh, story number two. Story number two. Yes, I know I apologize if I'm stealing a little bit of your thunder. Can't believe that.

Gavin 48:13

Cannot believe you get used to it. Man, I that's how I am used to it, guarantee it. So 14-year ex- Bourbon cask, we're clocking in at 48.3 ABV. And I'm not gonna make you do the math. You say 48.3?

Aaron 48:29

Yes, 96.6, baby.

Gavin 48:31

96.6. That's that is a radio station.

Aaron 48:36

No, radio stations are odd decimal points. Okay, well, but 96.6 is a reasonable body temperature. Is it? It feels cold, it's a little cold. It feels cold. Looks order. Perhaps a tweed jacket would be in order if you're at 96.6 with elbow pads. Well, yeah, you don't want to skin, you don't want to wear it through the elbows.

Gavin 49:00

Uh so this release is obviously the week of peat. The story behind it is the distillery manager back in like 2001-2002, I believe saw a gap in the production schedule. So ordered a peated um batch of malted barley.

Aaron 49:23

So they're not peating it themselves. Not this well, so curious. Maybe. I is this fully peated or partially peated.

Gavin 49:36

I believe it's fully peated. Um it is uh that they actually built a temporary burner next to the kiln so that they could actually run this um through.

Aaron 49:50

Oh, that would imply that they're peating and molting some of their doing it themselves there. So okay. This still falls into their um crafts. Yes, five pillars of craftsmanship.

Gavin 50:02

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Uh so still today, it remains the only week of the year where they produce a heavily peated liquid. So this comes in some internet research, anywhere between 40 and 50 ppms. So if you don't know what ppm is, go back and watch the Pete episode for Scotch for Starters. I'm not gonna shame anybody if you haven't seen it yet. Go go check it out after this episode, find out what PPM stands.

Aaron 50:37

That's what I'm here for. Seriously. I can't believe you haven't watched that yet. Uh or get out there, or he'll shame you. Check out one of our umpteen social media posts. We talk about this all the time.

Gavin 50:49

Yes, for sure. And if we missed you on the PPMs, apologize, we will get back with you. Parts per million. Parts per million. Pete's peats per million. Like how many mil how many million peats do they have? Uh a lot. There's probably millions of peats out there. Or used to be.

Aaron 51:08

You said 40 to 50 when it's all said and done? 40 to 50. Okay. Yeah. There's a range. It's a it's very much an industry reasonable range of peat. That's correct.

Gavin 51:19

Um, this has become kind of a permanent fixture in the lineup. But again, only produced once a week. Not once a week. One week a year. Week a year. I think that's why they call it Pete Week.

Aaron 51:36

Pete Week. If they called it weeks of Pete, then it would imply that there would be more than one. Uh that's I don't know. Maybe they do plurals different in Gaelic.

Gavin 51:46

Uh, so as we're talking about this bottle, the week of Pete, I want to touch on innovation a little bit. So first half of the show, we talked about tradition and craftsmanship and how those marry with anything um modern day. I kind of want to touch on a distillery that hones in its skills on the craft and their tradition. How do you innovate at that point? Because in most industries, if you don't have any kind of innovation, you're kind of left in the dust and you're falling behind your competitors, and I think there's a lack of um ingenuity in it.

Aaron 52:42

So my question is Yeah, we certain we certainly live in a world of change. Yeah. Where the change for change's sake seems to be more the the plan of the day. Um and and it sometimes holding true to tradition kind of bucks that idea of innovation and and change for the better. That's that's right. Change isn't always for the better. Um as I've gotten older, change change isn't always for the better. But I yeah, I that's it's just a world we live in. But I'm gonna turn this around. You started posing a question for me, and I want the question to be for you. Uh-huh. I think, I think where you were going with this, is how does a distillery that is so rooted in tradition still stay relevant, if you will, in a world that is so completely embraced change?

Gavin 53:44

That is essentially getting down to the that that's that's where I thought you were going, and if not, that's where I want you to go with this answer, anyways.

Aaron 53:53

So, yeah, I the Balvenie, who said we want to make whiskey the way it had always been made, and really leans into tradition, but yet Balvenie has shown to be still innovative. Your thoughts on playing that razor's edge.

Gavin 54:16

Yeah, so going excuse me, going back to say the Balvenie 12-year Double Wood, the reason why it's a double wood is because um um Mr. Stewart decided um he David Stewart was going to experiment with different types of cask finishing. And he essentially became pretty famous um for being one of the people to really uh start that process, not only in Scotch, but we can thank him for those um innovative thoughts in all whiskey, right? Because there's finishing barrels all over the place these days, um, different types of releases and different distilleries really trying to take that to the next step. Um for the better or for worse. There are some casts that I'm like, I don't know why you would want to use that wood in the first place, but uh and sometimes it's not just wood, right?

Aaron 55:20

Sometimes it's what that wood previously held, right?

Gavin 55:23

Exactly. So thinking about the Balvenie and how to be innovative in their own right, I think they have been very innovative in how they finish whiskey, the types of wood. Um really honing that in, I think, is one of the main ways that they have still stayed relevant in this constant world of change, but still doing it in a very traditional way.

Aaron 55:53

Well, I think the obvious thing when we talk about finishing is there is actually a pretty pronounced tradition of finishing in sherry. Right? I think the fun and chaos comes in when you start finishing in other things, whether they're a variety of different dessert wines or just traditional wines, fortified or otherwise. Um the changes in SWA regulations on the use of other spirit barrels, right? Because it had always been other whiskey barrels. Well, then it was they allowed rum barrels, or they allowed tequila barrels, or mezcal barrels. Like that changed things. And so, well, for me, I've always been a big fan of Glenmorangie and what they have done in their world of how they finish, and they have become famous for that skill set. But truth be told, Balvenie led the charge on several of the finishing options, right? Like the the introduction of the double wood, they they were the I don't know if it's technically true or not, that they may not have been the first ones to start playing around with it, but they were one of the very first ones to bring it to market. And then it immediately became the norm. Now go and look at how many distilleries have a 12-year-old bourbon and sherry matured, whether it is dual maturation or bourbon then and sherry in the way of a finish, like whatever that is, like almost everyone has one of those, right? But they the Balvenie was they were the early ones to do that. That's right. They led that charge again on rum, right? Like I remember being blown away by the Caribbean casket, how different that was, how delicious it was. It's still the tradition of Balvenie, right? Like they didn't change anything else or everything else, I should say. But man, that was not traditional in its process. Um now you look around, the idea of rum finished stuff has become quite a bit more popular, right? I can think of several brands right off the top of my head that that offer a rum finished. Um but but in my experience, Alveni was one of the first ones to jump into that too. So I I like the way they have married tradition with there's nothing wrong with trying something new. Um I think the problem tends to be we live in the states where tradition is dozens of years, not hundreds of years. Um I think if if your brand gets too caught up in changing things on a whim, if you will, it ultimately means you don't have anything that is the true you because everything could be you. Um, and I I don't like that either, right? Like I don't think you should never change, but at the same time, I think you need some stuff that remains constant.

Gavin 59:47

So diving into something just real quick here, limited releases. So we've talked about it on a couple episodes. How do you feel about um limited releases? Do you feel like a brand, and we've had you know David Blackmore on? It's Ardbeg, right?

Aaron 1:00:05

Like right Ardbeg, it felt like they said, like, well, here's our tenure, and everything else is gonna be a limited release. We're just gonna make limited releases. Um, the challenge is if everything becomes limited release, at some point you have to come back around and limited release, a thing you've already done, right? Like you can't just infinitely have variations. Um, you will stumble into things that don't work, right? Like you you will bump into the edge of acceptable. Um, I think the problem becomes as the consumer. I think the fun and artistry enjoy of distilling, yeah, do one-off batches all the time. But at some point you need to sell and you need to create a brand recognition, you need to understand, you need the consumer to understand that when they walk into the store, buying a bottle from here means I get something like this. And if everything is different every time, the consumer becomes confused, right?

Gavin 1:01:12

Well, it there's a the I think the consumer becomes fatigued because as somebody that can be a brand loyalist, you want the next release, you want the next release, you want the next release, and then now you're five, six, seven, ten releases in, you're like, gosh, I've got too much, I've got too much of that one. Yeah, right.

Aaron 1:01:35

And it's the fear of missing out. Like you want to have, I've run through waves, or it seems like I buy like six or seven different bottles from that distillery because like I just I'm I'm so blown away by something, and I like I keep chasing that high, right? And you and then what you realize is like I'm not I'm not getting it, right? And so then you stop, and then you find out that six months later number one whiskey in the world was the special release, and you're like, I gave up on them before I got around to the good one, right? Um, yeah, I I think I think the same problem occurs when you have annual releases of different stuff. Um I think you need to have something about your releases that ultimately go back to the core of who you are, right? That soul of the distillery. What is it that they do? What is it that ultimately pulls me back in? I you see from a marketing standpoint, you see distilleries release peated versions under a different brand and under a different label, then they're unpeated because they don't want to create brand confusion. That when I went in and bought brand X, right? We'll pick one as an example, right? Like I bought I bought Bruichladdich this time and it was unpeated. And the next time I went in and I bought Bruichladdich, it was peated, and then that's not what I was expecting. It was so totally different. So they don't they don't bottle them that way. Peated releases are Port Charlotte and unpeated are Bruichladdich, right? And that gives you a level of expectation that when I buy the bottle, I've got an idea of we're all playing in the sandbox, but which corner of the sandbox are they in, right? Um yeah, and so it's it's a bit of a dangerous curve, right? Balvenie went through and said, like, we're gonna put week of peak great big on the front. So you know when you pick up that bottle, that's what this is. Um so that way then you didn't accidentally stumble into something that you didn't mean to that might otherwise put you off to other products that they release. I in the world of sales, that I mean that is a fine line of wanting there to be variety and excitement and anticipation of things that come out, but yet at the same time not so confusing that people don't know who you are.

Gavin 1:04:12

As a weird tidbit of information.

Aaron 1:04:17

Do you remember the movie Splash? I do remember the movie Splash with uh Daryl Hana and Tom Hanks.

Gavin 1:04:23

Yeah. So I believe that was the movie that because Disney, that's technically a Disney movie. But it has a mermaid in it. But at the time, it was kind of risque in its language and what it showed.

Aaron 1:04:38

But then I believe they started Touchstone, and that's a Touchstone Pictures, but technically you're telling me Touchstone is the raunchy version of Disney?

Gavin 1:04:51

There you go. I didn't say it, he said it. But I was just summarizing. So in a funny way of about it and thinking about it, I mean, it's it's a brand that doesn't want wants to do something different, but doesn't want the crowd that they already have to be marginalized by something that they're gonna create.

Aaron 1:05:14

Yeah.

Gavin 1:05:14

In a way.

Aaron 1:05:15

And listen, I part of what we do is design things for a living. And I don't want every one of my designs to be the same. Like I want each one to have something special and something unique to it, right? But ultimately what happens is people call and be like, I like what you did on that one. Yeah, I want you to do like that again. Um, and so yeah, we we play that that fine line when in in what we do. And I think that I think the true matter of a craftsman is understanding how to how to create some level of repetition and consistency, but yet at the same time giving subtle nuances that that allow for. Some differences. There's a couple things.

Gavin 1:06:03

One, I love the way that you talk about the soul of something. When it is handcrafted, there's a soul behind it.

Aaron 1:06:13

Yeah, we should start a we should create a movie, all bottles go to heaven. And their souls are released.

Gavin 1:06:19

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Aaron 1:06:21

It's just a bunch of sad empty bottles.

Gavin 1:06:25

Yes. Um, and then relating the what you just said about the craftsman. Like in my current home, I have some handcrafted, hand-milled um cabinetry. And I could go in and replace it with something more modern, something more sleek, something that would look better.

Aaron 1:06:46

Yeah, you can buy something from Ikea tomorrow and deliver to the house.

Gavin 1:06:49

But my God, somebody hand-milled very ornate things, and that stuff is in every cabinet in the house. And so it's hard for me to remove that because it's somebody spent time and effort on that.

Aaron 1:07:05

Even more so if the craftsman story, it's not just the thing they crafted, but the story of who the person was that made it, right? Like you think about, think about family heirlooms that have been passed down over generation and generation and generation. This is this is the chair my great-grandfather made, right? Is a much better story than I bought this at the furniture store, but it's solid wood, right? It's a real nice one. Maybe my kids might want it someday. Like they have no emotional connection to it in that regard. So yeah, I I it's it's one of those that I we were talking about the story. And does the story matter? Yeah, the story matters, right? The story is what helps create that soul to to that thing. Um, yeah, the this bottle being one you bought at the distillery makes the bottle better. Yep, right? It it may not matter to anyone else, but it makes it better to you. And you might get to share it with. This may come as a shock. The people who are sitting at home watching this, I hope you enjoy these. But if you don't, it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the whiskey, right? I I think that's the thing that has really saddened me is what is is the whiskey boom occurred. Too much of people's value in what they had was based upon other people's opinion of it, right? Um, whether that was well, what is the secondary market price for it? Well, who cares what the secondary market price is? You already own it. If you want it, drink it. Right? It doesn't matter that it you could resell it for a whole bunch more money. That's not what you're here for. I don't care whether or not that bottle I own was rated 95 and above by whiskey advocates. Doesn't matter to me anymore. I already own it. Right? It might go into a well, I take a flyer on a bottle. Well, let's try this one. This one I've heard is is is good. But ultimately, once I own it, it's it's here for me to drink and let's enjoy it for what it is. And who cares if nobody else likes what you like? Yep. Right? Um, I have on more than one occasion pulled a bottle out and had been chastised by people in the room. They're like, seriously, like that one? That's the one you like? And I was like, Yeah, it's really tasty. Almost always. I won't say always, almost always. You put that in front of somebody blind, and they're like, that's pretty tasty. Right? It's the preconceived notion, it's the thoughts they had about the distillery, about the brand before they took a sip that ultimately changed their perception of it. Um, and that's to me, that's the fun part of this. All of this, right? Like sitting and drinking whiskey is the fact that you get to just enjoy it for what it is.

Gavin 1:10:16

The fact that we get to sit and drink a whiskey with you makes this whole idea of the noble dream work.

Aaron 1:10:23

Yeah, it would it wouldn't be nearly as fun if we had to stand. The fact that we get to sit and do it, that's the key.

Gavin 1:10:30

All right.

Aaron 1:10:30

Well, let's let's get to this bottle. Okay, I I will I was just thinking I probably need to put a number to it, and then you and then you called me to make me do this, and so now I gotta think of a number real fast. All right, real fast as we run through so this one to me, the fun of this whiskey is how much different it is by the time I got to my tenth sip than it started. Like it really has changed in the glass. Um at first on the nose, I got a chemical kind of sharpness to it. Reminded me a bit of like you've all been by a pool that had chlorine put in it too recently, and it's got a little bit of that funk and that little bit of bite, a little bit of, and then I then as I sat here a little bit and I was like, no, you know, it's really more of like a briny saltiness that shows up on there. And then as it's gone, I get much more grassy notes to it now, right? Like it it has gone through distinct waves on the nose that I've really enjoyed. Um, so yeah, I part of when you pull an old bottle out, uh one that whether you whether it's fresh cracked or one that's set around for a bit, like you gotta let that air out just a little bit. Um there are compounds that will be disproportionate for just a brief moment. Um I I did not say I disliked any of them, right? They're all distinctly different. Um but yeah, I this has got peat on the nose for sure. Not as dark, earthy of peat, more light, grassy peat. I get that grassy note, I get a little bit of hint of that briny. Um not knowing where the peat was harvested from, but in my head, it's there's a coastal breeze blowing in that's bringing salt spray into the marsh um and into the bog, and that's that's picked up in this. Maybe I'm waxing poetic and don't know, right?

Gavin 1:12:40

I don't I think it's actually spaceside um barley.

Aaron 1:12:46

No, no, not barley, the the peat itself. Oh, oh, oh, the peat. I I and I don't know. I don't know where the peat is from. I don't know.

Gavin 1:12:54

It it may be Speyside peat. I'm not sure.

Aaron 1:12:58

If I can figure it out, I'll put a little text thing down here. If not, well, you know I couldn't find it. It's the fact checked. Yeah, we keep talking about doing all this like you've seen the TV shows, and then they do like the thought bubbles with like all the the factoids. Yeah. Um, I I thought that would be fun, then I realized how long that was gonna take me, and I was like, nah, we're not doing that.

Gavin 1:13:18

Yeah, we're not doing that. Just let us know in the comments.

Aaron 1:13:20

We yeah, it's no, that's your job. You guys put the factoids on it.

Gavin 1:13:23

Let us know what everything we got wrong. We love we love it. Other than agreeing with me, what did you think about the next one? Um, I think it it does have that that kind of wet hay grassy note. Um, I think there's a butterscotch. Maybe that's just because I love my old man candies, uh, the Werther's Originals, butterscotch. Uh, I think that there's a bit of that. I did get floral notes. Um there is a cereal note that I got to it. Um butterscotch. You don't get butterscotch?

Aaron 1:13:57

No, I don't. I'm even looking for it and not finding it. Maybe it's because I just your hands smell like butterscotch. We're good done.

Gavin 1:14:09

Hang on.

Aaron 1:14:11

Um just a general general butterscotch musk about you. Uh I can think of way worse the ways to smell though. I'll be honest. For sure. Um, okay. All right. Palate amps up the peat. Yes. Again, this surprises me because so often the palate is the soft spot in the peat train, right? But this, I think the peat is stronger on the palate than it is on the nose, which I find fascinating. Smoke shows up. Yep. Um, just just a hint, a wisp of it. Um, and floral becomes much more potent. I said grass to begin with, this turns more flowers, right? I there's still grassiness to it, but I think I think we've shifted. It reminds me of like the fields of heather that you see growing wild in the space sides. I get that.

Gavin 1:15:06

Yep. Um, couldn't agree with you more. I think there's a creaminess to it. I put smoke, I put tobacco, maybe it's a tobacco smoke. Um, I feel like this to me is reminding me of smoking my pipe in Scotland, just hanging out in the chillier weather than we do have here in Houston.

Aaron 1:15:28

Yeah, this has got this has got sweater vest written all over it.

Gavin 1:15:31

Yeah, yeah. It's got my cardigan.

Aaron 1:15:35

The cardigan with the buttons and the pockets with your with your butterscotch candies.

Gavin 1:15:39

Yeah, this is 100%. Wait, did your cardigan have leather patches on the button? I haven't worn out the white the elbows yet.

Aaron 1:15:47

So oh, is it is the leather patch on the oboe like a repair patch? Yeah, I said I just assume these jackets came with the leather patch again or I I think that I'm I think some of them do, but I own no no leather patched clothing.

Gavin 1:16:04

So I don't know the answer. I think it's like um people that buy ripped jeans, it's kind of that thing. It's like if you buy a sweater with the patches, it's it's a fake patch. The patches are really there to for repairs.

Aaron 1:16:20

Faux patch is what you're saying. Faux patch. Faux patch.

Gavin 1:16:24

Yeah.

Aaron 1:16:24

All right. Hot take.

Gavin 1:16:26

I don't know.

Aaron 1:16:27

I don't know if it's on the page.

Gavin 1:16:28

For all the people that wear patches on their elbows.

Aaron 1:16:31

Both of the people who still buy these things.

Gavin 1:16:34

Yeah. Um, all right. On the finish, do you feel like it tracks on from what you got on the palette?

Aaron 1:16:41

I think some of the peatiness ebbs a bit and the smoke becomes a little more prominent on the on the finish. Okay. Um, I think the grassy stays, the the notes you were hinting, tobacco, right? Like absolutely there to me. Um, like almost wet tobacco leaves. If you've ever been in a tobacco barn, right, where it's drying out, I I get a little of the greener tobacco thing, the wet tobacco rather than the dry. Um, but yeah, I it's again surprisingly how it is unlike traditional peated whiskies where the peat shows up so prominent. I get more peat on the palate, and I get more of the smoke on the finish, and I get more of that medicinal brininess on the nose. Like it's it's segmented out as opposed to being in all three as much as I I traditionally think of peated whiskies to be.

Gavin 1:17:45

For me, I had originally put like a medium finish, but I just marked it out and put long. I think that there's a wave that happens with this. Um, I think there's a creaminess, like a viscous, creamy vanilla that I started getting kind of after the smoky, after the tobacco. You just kind of let that roll through the mid-palate and back palette, and then I got like a really creamy vanilla.

Aaron 1:18:13

I yeah, I'm getting like almost overcooked caramel, like a kind of burnt sugar custard kind of thing at the end. Um, kind of reminds me of like the the charred sugar on the top of a creme brulee, right? Almost on the end of the finish. Yeah. Yeah. All right, you want a number? Yes. I already have mine. You got yours? I'm on, I took, I took one shoe off to to count up toes, right? Just to get this right. One shoe off. I am at a 90. A 9-0. This one is excellent. And what I'll say is I it's got a lot of the things I like about Balvenie, right? Or Balvenie. Sorry. See, this is my Americanism showing up. Um, it's got that lighter honey kind of undertone. Like it's got classic-y Balvenie flavors under there. But here, instead of those being the prominent flavors and the peat playing backseat, like we had on the previous bottle, this the peat comes to the forefront, and the traditional Balvenie shows up as the supporting role. I like that dynamic. That's a fun twist. It's unlike anything else. The fact that this bottle came from the distillery on your vacation, so it helps a little. I think the story helps. Story helps. I'm at a 90.

Gavin 1:19:44

All right. Well, I'm gonna beat you just a smidge bitch. Yes. 91. 91. Yeah, see. Percent of 91. This bottle um, to me, intrigued me when I was in the distillery. It I'm I love Pete. I'm a Pete head, um, if you will. Instead of a pot head, I'm a Pete head. Um I what does that have to be instead? I mean, I guess you could be. There's no judgment. Yeah. I mean, it is what it is. No, no, no, we're judging. We're just not gonna say it. Um, this is something that I want on my shelf, have on my shelf, and I'm excited that I get to share it with you and with you. Um, if you have an opportunity to get the week of peat, please go out and grab a bottle. It is delicious. Hand me the canister.

Aaron 1:20:38

I I actually had been lucky enough years ago to get the original Week of Pete release. It was the first year they did it with 14 years after they did it, right? Because it was a 14. And they actually had a calendar and it showed which which week they had peated and stuff. And I want to say this release was like two or three years into that process. Um, so even if your bottle doesn't look ex the canister doesn't look exactly like this, they do this every year, and each one has a slightly different.

Gavin 1:21:16

I know what you're talking about. Yeah, it's a different label, even on the bottle. Um, I wish I had that label.

Aaron 1:21:22

Um I like looking back now on some of those bottles I got years ago, I didn't realize quite how spectacular those were. Because at the time, great whiskey was easy to get a hold of. And now you're like, oh man, that's hard to hard to stumble into some of these gems. And I'm like, no, I I think just a long time ago, I just bought the stuff that caught your eye, and they were all damn tasty back in the day.

Gavin 1:21:49

What I would love to do, and I don't know if this is even a thing, but man, if I can get labels off the bottle without ripping them, man, I'd love to put those all in a book. That way I know, like I keep track of everything that I own and that I've drank, but man, if I could have a label-to-label comparison, it would be great.

Aaron 1:22:10

We're not, we're not, we're not being paid to say this, but there is a gentleman online who makes art pieces out of broken bottles that I think is so cool. I I don't have enough wall space in my home for all the bottles. I want to like this was a special bottle. I want you to do a broken glass uh art piece out of this bottle. He keeps the labels. I don't know how he does it. I just seen pictures and and videos of his work, and uh it's excellent. We will figure out who you are and put them in.

Gavin 1:22:41

Actually, um, one of the things that I'm hoping to do, I have, and I didn't bring it tonight. Maybe if we have here's my challenge if we can get Charlie, the global brand ambassador for the Balvenie on the show, I'll bring the bottle that I hand-to-find from the Balvenie with him there, and he signed the label. Oh, you held out and bring the good stuff to you? I held out for this challenge. So, Charlie, let's get you on the episode. But I would love to think that Charlie watches our show.

Aaron 1:23:12

I don't know if that's true, but I would love to think so. But I'm hoping somewhere out there, somebody does who knows how to get a hold of Charlie.

Gavin 1:23:21

Yes, that's my hopes. So, to bring that, to marry that with the fellow who does the broken bottle label art. That bottle is the bottle that I want done in that art form. Like I want that bottle that I signed, that Charlie signed, all of that. I'll make some phone calls. So let us know. Anyways, all right. So goodness, lots of things that we didn't talk about on the history. Hold up.

Aaron 1:23:48

We need to recap before we move on because I want I want to make sure we did this properly. All right. 90 for me, 91 for Gavin, Balvenie's the Week of Pete. Yes, absolutely get you on. 14-year-old bottle of deliciousness. Story number two the dose.

Gavin 1:24:09

So, as a distillery highlight, we did not go into a ton of history, but we had a ton of conversation that I absolutely loved. So appreciate everybody joining us. Make sure you like, subscribe, comment. Let us know the things that we got completely wrong. Let us know the things that you absolutely loved. We're looking at you, Andrew.

Aaron 1:24:33

Uh we tell me said something wrong. That's all I love. More than anything else is somebody commenting that. We love Gavin was wrong.

Gavin 1:24:40

We love your comments.

Aaron 1:24:41

Uh I don't need anybody telling me about my faults, but anything wrong with Gavin was.

Gavin 1:24:46

Tell me I'm wrong on everything, and I would love it. I love your engagement. Are you is is that what you're saying?

Aaron 1:24:51

So I I put a splice of the original on. Oh my god. This is my this is this has become one of my new favorite things is to go back and hit the first one again um at the end of the episode because it is so different. It is. Yours actually has gotten cloudied from evaporation.

Gavin 1:25:11

Yeah, you're well, and this the there's less peat on the nose or smoke than I had originally.

Aaron 1:25:17

So all right. Until next week, in the old words of Adam West, same bat time, same bat channel. Cheers. And Slante Mhath.

Gavin 1:25:31

We want to thank you, our noble listener, for joining us. We believe each whiskey has a story, and so do you. So give us your thoughts by leaving a comment. And if you have a whiskey you'd like to see us share, let us know. You don't want to miss a single episode, so subscribe to our YouTube channel and make sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to stay up to date on the Noble Dream. And if you find watching us difficult, you can always listen to each episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. As always, be noble and enjoy your dream responsibly. Nailed it!