First pour tonight, and I gotta say it's pretty good. I'm no professional, but if you like Lagavulin's other offerings you will probably like this.

It's sweet, like really sweet, but I think the peat and smoke counteract it well.

On the nose, the rum barrel didn't really stand out to me, it smells like Lagavulin, but just a little different.

The taste is immediately sweeter than standard 16, but still tastes familiar. Milder on peat, and big on vanilla.

And the finish I found good, the rum fades away, and the peat lingers.

I paid $89 for it and I'd say it was a good buy, I wouldn't pay more though.

Balvenie distillery is a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky distillery in Dufftown, Scotland, owned by William Grant & Sons. One week a year Balvenie turns their production to making a limited run peated whisky. According to Balvenie's website, this practice started after distillery manager Ian Millar visited Islay. He ordered a batch of Speyside peat for the kiln and built a peat burner on the side ‘for, well, extra peatiness’ with the intent to experiment with their The Balvenie profile.

Due to the strong influence of peat, they separate the remaining low wines and feints, basically low-alcohol spirit, and store them in a tank until the following year’s peat week, so there is a year-to-year link between one peat week and the next.

It is bottled at 48.3% ABV. Other than that... I don't seem able to find any details about the maturation, coloring, or possible chill filtration process. Balvenie dedicated a lot of time to crafting a web page to highlight the history behind the making of this bottle, but they offer very little details on the bottle itself beyond their tasting notes.

Regardless, I was excited to try this. I've never had anything from Balvenie before, and I've recently become more interested in Speysides. I've only tried a handful of Speysides so far (the bulk of my whisky experience is focused on Islay so far), but my impressions so far have been very favorable. None of those have been peated, so this seemed like a win-win.

Nose: Canadian bacon, lemon, brown sugar

Palate: smoke, peat, vanilla, chili, apple juice

Finish: lingering burn and sweetness.

Notes: This was very disappointing. It lacks complexity, it’s a bit too sweet, and the peat and sweet that dominate aren’t even well integrated. It doesn’t taste actively bad, but I’m just not finding anything positive about this. Of all the whisky I've tried in the past couple of years, I can honestly say that I enjoyed this one least of all.

Score: 3.5/10

Scoring guide

0 - Undrinkable

1 - Awful

2 - Bad

3 - Flawed

4 - Below Average

5 - Average / Mediocre

6 - Above Average / Decent

7 - Good; a solid choice

8 - Great; I'd happily drink this any day

9 - Excellent; for truly special occasions

10 - Mythical/perfect

Teeling Blackpitts Peated Single Malt is an Irish whiskey from Teeling Whiskey. Triple distilled and then matured in a combination of ⅔ ex-bourbon and ⅓ ex-sauternes white wine casks. It is bottled at 46% ABV without chill filtration. There’s no mention of whether they use colors on Teeling’s site, but it is quite light colored and coupled with the lack of chill filtration I’m inclined to believe they don’t add color.

Nose: peach, grape must, peat, black pepper, orange zest.

Palate: Lemony, peppery, light peat, pineapple juice, light salt brine

Finish: Lingering light notes of pepper, mild dish soap, grilled oranges.

Notes: The nose is light and delicate. The flavor is also rather delicate. It’s a really nice mix of fruit and pepper in nearly equal balance. The peat is more of a backdrop. Part of Teeling’s marketing was that the triple distillation process removes some of the “medicinal” taste from the peat smoke; I initially dismissed this as marketing speak, but it really does seem to present the peat in a different light. I’m guessing that is why the peat falls into much more of a background note.

I really like this. It is a nicely light and refreshing dram, and I enjoy the contrast in the flavors. I’d absolutely try this again.

Score: 8.2/10