The Balvenie Rare Marriages collection is an appellation reserved for its older expressions and refers to the scrupulously selected combination of casks used in the maturation of each. This is a common process in the industry, but one that is something of a Balvenie signature – after all, it was David C Stewart MBE, the Speyside distillery’s Malt Master, who pioneered the process there in 1983.
Rare Marriages is Stewart’s latest collection, aimed solely at the most discerning of whisky connoisseurs. All three expressions benefit from Stewart’s vast experience – it has been 60 years since he got his start in the industry, with The Balvenie – in selecting the specific duo of American and European casks to use.
It starts with The Balvenie Twenty-Five: honey sweetness and oaky wood, the distillery’s core characteristics, are of course present, along with soft and elegant fruits, crystallised ginger and toasted marshmallows to present a balanced concoction. It is bottled at 48 per cent ABV.
Joining the Twenty-Five are two older expressions: the Thirty and the Forty. The Thirty is the sweetest of them, with its oaky tones mellowed; hints of candied orange peel complete the picture, alongside those of plum, marzipan, and caramelised pear, and is 44.2 per cent ABV.
The Forty, meanwhile, uses some of the distillery’s rarest casks to create the boldest expression in the range: refined but rich, it layers sweet and spice to assemble its complex personality that is highlighted by the warmth of ginger and a citrus zest, arriving at an ABV of 48.5 per cent.
Each of these is packaged in a cylindrical case with luxurious trimmings such as walnut wood caps, brass fittings, magnetic closures, and shading to reflect the liquids within. The Forty is especially grand, consisting of stained wood rings of dark and light that blend together in the middle – a statement on the marrying process. To enhance the atmosphere of these releases, The Balvenie commissioned three artists, specialists in tactile materials, to create pieces in support of each: wood artist Rebal Jber for the Forty, South Korean leatherworker Junsu Kim for the Thirty, and paper quilling artist Yulia Brodskaya for the Twenty-Five.
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