Ballantine's 12 Years Old
Blended - Scotland - 40.00% In a clear line to Finest, but more bedded onto the tongue.

Ballantine's 12 Years Old, Pure Malt
Blended Malt - Scotland - 40.00% 7 Elegantly restrained. An excellent pure malt for socialising.

Ballantine's 17 Years Old
Blended - Scotland - 43.00% 8 The blending skills at Ballantine have long been renowned. The 17 has always seemed to me the most eloquent demonstration of that. Beautifully composed and mature.

Ballantine's 17 Years Old
Blended - Scotland - 43.00% 7 Quite a rustic profile, warmed up when aerated. Seems to have retained the waterfalls from all Scotland!

Ballantine's 17 Years Old
Blended - Scotland - 43.00% Ripe, elegant and complex and always that Ballantine's precision.

Ballantine's 21 Years Old
Blended - Scotland - 43.00% 8 My personal taste is more robust, but I am in awe of the precision and refinement of the older Ballantine's.

Ballantine's 30 Years Old
Blended - Scotland - 43.00% Very polished. Fascinating how while precision is retained the range shifts from floral to deep.

Ballantine's Christmas Reserve
Single Malt - Scotland - 40.00% 7 It's Ballantine's as you've seen it before but the “Christmas” angle is well worked. Great blending.

Ballantine's Finest
Blended - Scotland - 40.00% 7 Very gentle, but a precise clarity of flavours. Drink while listening to Vivaldi.

Ballantine's Finest
Blended - Scotland - 40.00% A clean, fresh young mixer.

Ballantine's Gold Seal, 12 Years Old
Blended - Scotland - 43.00% 7 Gold seal is a particularly rich version of Ballantine, but this bottling seems even sweeter and less peaty than I remember. For me, the syrupiness swamps the house character.

Ballantine's Limited
Blended - Scotland - 43.00% 8 Much more sherryish than the colour suggests. Sweet. Sponge fingers. I wouldn't have recognised it as a Ballantine's.