A Touch of the Tropical- The Balvenie 14yr Caribbean Cask

I'm a self confessed lover of rum and Balvenie fanboy, there I said it. Luckily for me there is now a bottle that cobines those two loves with another; the good and honest, single malt, scottish whisky. Balvenie now offer the Balvenie Caribbean Cask, a replacement for the previous Cuban selection. This whisky is matured for the vast majority of its' life in standard oak barrels, but is transferred to old rum barrels to impart that heady, exotic character.

On the nose the rumy quality comes through in a big way, I'm pretty sure that on a 'blind smelling' people would not place this as the noble product of Scotland. There is a cacophony of tropical notes coming through, fruit, sugar cane along with cream, vanilla, fudge and toffee. This is obviously a very sweet nose as would be expected from a whisky finished in such a way, but also is very stereotypical I've found of Balvenie as a distillery.

On the palate again the sweetness is there with honey, vanilla, cream, mango, orange, and toffee to name just some of the flavours I picked up. After the primary assault the flavour fades into a nice vanilla and spiced toffee lull, lasting a good amount of time coating the mouth. There is a lot going on in this glass which I didn't expect with such an overbearing wood finish, but is very nicely mellowed with no burn on it.

The Caribbean Cask is a step up from the Doublewood price wise,  but I would suggest it as a way of trying a different wood finish and sampling something pretty different from the norm. I think this would  also make a great gift for all those rum and bourbon drinkers out there, it has a lot of shared qualities with those and could be a great introduction to new drinkers.

Pick up a bottle from The Whiskey Exchange for £42.95, or there may be on on the shelf of your local Asda for £41