Ballantine's 21 Year Old / 70cl

Product Information

Born in the year Beethoven died, Ballantine’s began life in 1827 when George Ballantine – a farmer’s son – set up a small grocery store in Edinburgh. Archibald Ballantine, George’s son, later took over the running of the Edinburgh store whilst George expanded operations to Glasgow. It was from here that he really focused on expanding into the spirit trade and blending his own whiskies. A brand marketing blurb suggests that George Ballantine and Son Ltd, as they were then known, even began exporting to India as early as the 1860s. That however, was long before I drank their 21 year old expression. As it turns out, this is an excellent whisky. I sincerely hope none of it was spilled one that faithful night in the winter of 2013. Ballantine’s 21 Years Old (43%, OB)

Unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise, your use of and membership to the Service are exclusively governed by Dutch law. We shall first try to settle any dispute over a dram of whisky. Disputes that cannot be settled over multiple drams of whisky shall be solely submitted to the court of Amsterdam, The Netherlands unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise. Whiskybase B.V. (“Whiskybase”, “we” or “us”, company details below) offers a whisky enthusiasts online platform that provides its members access to the most comprehensive, transparent and trusted resource of whisky bottles and allows and stimulates its members to contribute information about whisky bottles to the platform (“Service”). Nonetheless, Sandy Hislop (only the 5th Master Blender in the company’s history) has brought everything together wonderfully well. All aspects working in concert to create a finely balanced and immensely enjoyable blend of which farmer George – and Beethoven – would have been proud. The 21 year old sits in the middle of the core aged range of Ballantine’s expressions and was introduced in 1993. Recent bottlings have all been produced at 40% ABV (including the current ‘Signature Oak Edition’), but older versions were delivered a touch higher at 43%. We’re taking at one of the 43%ers in the form of the 21 year old ‘Very Old Scotch Whisky’ produced in the late 1990’s. The Very Old 21 year old is bottled in a blue ceramic decanter produced by the famous Wade Ceramics who have operated from the UK pottery capital of Stoke-on-Trent since 1867. The Wade decanter edition was produced in two sizes – 70cl and 50cl. Whilst long since departed, you’ll still occasionally see both versions for sale at auction – and being a blend, and not a single malt, they can often be acquired at very reasonable prices If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, the remainder of the Terms shall continue in full force and effect.Each and every Member must be of legal drinking age in its country of residence to be allowed to use the Service. If no such law exists in a Member’s country of residence, the Member has to be over 21 years old to use the Service. We have the right to ask you to provide proof of your age and/or to provide further identification to prevent underage usage and/or for any other legal or legitimate purpose. By using the Service, and by creating an account you represent, warrant and confirm that you are of legal age. Without prejudice to the section Liability below, the Service may be temporarily unavailable during maintenance, updates, etc. We shall make reasonable efforts to inform you of any unavailability due to maintenance or updates.

The Service has been prepared by us solely for information purposes to Members and the Service is based on information we consider reliable and we obtain the contents of the Service from a number of different third party sources (including Contributions), but we do not endorse, support, represent, warrant or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of the Services and any information therein. When I wrote the tasting note for Ballantine’s 21 Years Old Blended Whisky, I vaguely remembered a news article from a few years ago. It was about thousands of liters of whisky being accidentally dumped into a sewer at the Chivas Brothers bottling plant in Dumbarton.

Whisky reviews for Ballantine's 21-year-old

Our Service is an online platform which provides Members with information (e.g. bottle facts, market-indices, market values and prices) on (mostly) whisky and allows Members to add information to the platform. We do not sell, nor does the Service provide any option to buy, any alcoholic products. Ballantine’s is the world’s second best-selling Scotch whisky (Johnnie Walker holding the top spot for many a year). Established in 1827 by George Ballantine, the blend is comprised of 50 single malts, and four grain whiskies, but draws its flavour profile primarily from Speysiders Glenburgie and Miltonduff. Currently owned by big boy Pernod Ricard, the core range of expressions is quite broad, covering NAS’s ‘Finest’ and ‘Limited’ and then extending from 12 years of age all the way to 40 with a fair few pit stops on the way. A whisky that will forever live in my head as a sort of cubist grotesque. A nose the size of Pinocchio and the two faces of Janus, simultaneously looking towards the opposing horizons of sweet and spice. The only quibble is the 40% ABV – it feels like it deserves a bit more punch. It wasn’t until a recent holiday to Greece that I remembered its existence. For reasons unknown, I had decided to take Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco’s esoteric classic, as my beach read. It’s a book brimming with cryptic clues, cults, mystical notes and numerology. At one point in the story, during a particularly poignant and confusing passage, a character (Jacopo Belbo) bets the protagonist (Casaubon) a bottle of Ballantine’s twelve that he can’t “deliver the Popelicans” in two weeks.

Taste: Big on the caramel and fudge, with whispers of bitter orange peel, milk chocolate and charred oak. Fairly spicy (that’s the European oak talking) with cloves and nutmeg, followed by a pinch of salt. In 1827, George Ballantine established a grocery store in Edinburgh. His products included a range of whiskies and spirits. George set up a new store in Glasgow in 1865, which he deemed a more profitable location. Whilst he appointed his son Archibald to run the Edinburgh operations. At this time George Ballantine began creating his own blends. The Ballantine’s in the cupboard: A review of Ballantine’s 21, via a French supermarket, a Greek beach, and an esoteric pendulum. Regardless of whether the Service offers the functionality to contribute, you are solely responsible and liable for any content and information that you create, upload, post, publish, link to, duplicate, transmit, record, display or otherwise make available on the Service or to other Members, such as chat messages, text messages, videos, audio, audio recordings, music, pictures, photographs, text and any other information or materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted (“Contributions”).

Having now finished the book, I’m still unclear who the Popelicans were, and whether or not they were delivered. I can confirm there was no further mention of said Ballantine’s twelve in the story. Anyhow, perhaps inspired by the numerological significance of the inverse digits, I suddenly recalled my twenty-one patiently waiting for me in the cupboard at home. On the nose: An intense hit of sherry-soaked fruitcake immediately transports you to an idealised image of Christmas Day evening. You can almost feel the warm glow of the imagined fire on your cheeks and smell the slight smokiness of burning logs mingling with the creamy vanilla and brandy butter rising out of the glass. Next come the sugary apricots, like the waft of a freshly flipped (apricot) tarte tatin, mixed with figs and wine gums. Then a hint of almonds and more caramel sweetness as everything comes together. I’m briefly overcome by the slight fear that I should’ve saved it for another couple of months, followed by the realisation that it will be hard to find another bottle in the UK for Christmas. Shit. It’s a powerfully complex opening movement and expectations are high. No partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship is created as a result of your use of the Service. I googled for a bit, and found the article. I remember thinking: ‘As long as it’s Ballantine’s, that’s fine by me.’ The standard Ballantine’s represents a blended whisky I once drank probably over a decade ago, didn’t like at all, and since has become a bit of a inside joke between me and a friend.