Old Ballantruan The Peated Malt – whisky review

Old Ballantruan

Old Ballantruan The Peated Malt

There is no distillery called Old Ballantruan. Just as there are no Longrow or Hazelburn distilleries, which we can easily find as single malt whiskies. Both are produced by Springbank – a wonderful distillery from Campbeltown. We have the same situation here. Old Ballantruan is a heavily peated whisky, produced by a distillery, which is rather known for its delicate, unpeated sweet-fruity-wine’y style, typical for the Scotland’s region called Speyside.

Old Ballantruan The Peated Malt

Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Ballantruan Spring is the name of the water source near the distillery

Region: Speyside

NAS

50% ABV

Heavily peated, approx. 30 PPM

Un-chill filtered

Color: amber -1, natural, without artificial coloring

Tasting notes

Nose: at the beginning, the alcoholic intensity disturbs a bit. Immediately the peat-smoke is present, followed by some citric notes, cola, vanilla, tonic, caramel, musk 20/25

Palate: ginger, cocoa, toffee, smoke, wood. Strong, intense, tasty. The alcohol is better hidden than at the scent. 22/25

Finish: semi-dry wine, tonic, anise, cloves, caramel, citrus 21/25

Balance: a bit too alcoholic in the fragrance, but the taste and finish are completely different. This is a non-age-stated whisky, so I didn’t expect huge complexity. Yet, a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed it. An additional advantage is the lack of chill-filtration and a decent 50% ABV, which, however, is (maybe apart from the smell) quite well hidden. 20/25

Overall: 83/100

Other reviews:

whiskyfun (2006): 82/100

Murray „Whisky Bible” (2017): 89.5/100

Price: approx. EUR 35

Conclusion

It’s not bad dram… but definitely not a must-have.

Oh, and the distillery’s name is Tomintoul.

More photos here

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