A timeless style of malt whisky, Balcones “1” Texas Single Malt breathes new life into centuries of distilling tradition with classic techniques and ingredients adapted for New World tastes. Opening aromas bear hints of toffee and overripe fruits. On the palate, layers of toasted malt and honey give way to mellow notes of baked pears and apples. A long finish is accompanied by cinnamon and cloves. Texas made, Texas proud, we hope you enjoy the whisky we owe our success to as much as we enjoy making it.
Balcones Distilling
Appearance
There’s more than just a reddish hue to this whisky. The swirl line is quite thin, and it beads up, dropping medium thick legs. #BalconesTasting
Nose
Well, this is lovely and fruity, lots of red berries for me, strawberries and red currants. Blood orange rind, and chocolate again, chocolate dipped strawberries, it is very Jammy. #BalconesTasting
@AyeWhisky has just said bananas, I have to agree, but foam bananas sweets for me. The wood and fruit balance is perfect for me, it’s so nicely rounded. A bag of Starburst sweets, and this reminds me even more of the Strathisla 12yo. #BalconesTasting
Palate
The mouthfeel is decent, not watery, but not oily, and the palate, even straight away, is superb. Cherries, strawberry lace sweets, chocolate cherry liquors, red apple skin, cranberries, marmalade, apricots, this is a bit of me. #BalconesTasting
More time and old leather, mocha, Jammy dodgers, syrup from a jar of cocktail cherries come arrive. Some cereals are coming through, and rose water. #BalconesTasting
Finish
Long side of medium in length again for me, and a full on fruit medley, but it has spiciness like some sherry cask whiskies. Aniseed, cough syrup punch through, and there’s just so much fruit. #BalconesTasting
My thoughts
Well, it seems iv’e found a new top 10 dram. I love this whisky, and if it hadn’t been for the tasting it was on i might never have gotten around to it, and missed what in my opinion is a banger of a dram. It comes in at around £63, and i think it’s worth every penny, even more so considering the prices whisky can command these days.
It got me to wondering how a distillery all the way over in Texas can bring such a good whisky to our shores and sell it at £63. It kind of puts things even more into perspective where the current whisky world pricing is concerned. I will 100% be buying one of these at some point, and have to congratulate Balcones on producing such a fruity juicy whisky. If anyone reading this hasn’t got to try this whisky, i’d advise to try and source a sample.
A big thank you goes out to my whisky friend Paul – @pswhisky on Twitter, for sending out these samples and arranging the tasting that this bottle was a part of. Follow Paul and indeed us on Twitter using the buttons below.
bottle pic – Latitude wine and liquor merchant.
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