Today I decided to review the Balvenie 12 Triple Cask, as I’d had a mini in my sample bag for a few months, and wondered how the review would compare to past Balvenie 12s I’ve had. So here’s a three-way comparison that’s also a bit of a time capsule of my reviewing over the past few years, as I looked at each of these in very different times/places:

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Balvenie 12 Doublewood – 40% (reddit review #8, Sept 2013)

Went to a martini bar with my gf [Editor’s note: no longer with her] and all they had for scotch was Glenfiddich 12 and The Balvenie 12 Doublewood. Chose the latter and made some quick notes as I was enjoying it. Won’t be the most comprehensive review as a result! (and no picture)

• Appearance: pretty dark, though the lighting was very dark in there too. couldn’t tell if it’s the different woods affecting colour or if it has artificial colouring in it.
• Nose: sweet nose with fruity notes. honey, vanilla. can smell the sherry
• Taste: again very sweet. Pear taste is up front… even my [ex-]gf who doesn’t drink scotch tasted pears. honey, vanilla, sherry, apples.
• Finish: short and sweet. didn’t seem to last, and with a sip of water it was gone.
• Rating: 80/100

tasty dram, but left me with a hankering for something stronger.

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Balvenie 12 Signature – 40% (reddit review #40, Oct 2014)

I got this dram as part of an r/scotch mystery swap with /u/big_daddy_drams. I received 3 mystery drams, and guessed the first two correctly, being Balvenie 16 Triple Cask (which I’ve also included here as a comparison), and Ardbeg Corryvrecken

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Balvenie 12 Triple Cask – 40% (reddit review #241, March 2017)

and now the one i had tonight. was very interested to see how it compared to the other 12s and 16 doublewood.

• Appearance: light orange. Pretty standard and looks coloured.
• Nose: tons of honey, caramel, some apple, peach, pear… almost like the juice from those canned fruit cups. Grassy, Very sugary. Lots of aromas I typically associate with balvenie and speyside, not much that I associate with oloroso though.
• Palate: It’s weirdly bitter on first taste which was unexpected. On second and third taste the honey, light fruit and sugar come through as expected. floral. Quite thin, but at 40%, that’s to be expected. A bit of dried fruit, but nothing I would definitely attribute to the oloroso, which is disappointing. little bit of spice, but hard to place it.
• Finish: woody bitterness, short, sweet.
• Score: 72

this was not what I expected. I liked it significantly less than all of the other Balvenie’s I’ve tried. That bitterness was a disappointment and really, why brag about oloroso aging if it’s not gonna show up? Glad I bought this mini for only 3 pounds or something.

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So overall, my average of these 4 comes out to 80, which is a bit below my overall average, but I guess that makes sense. Balvenie puts out some decent, generally non-offensive drams, but usually won’t blow your socks off. I’m just surprised the last one did so poorly. So far my favourite balvenie is the 17 peated cask, but that’s a whole other beast. Might have to try a Tun sometime.