This Balvenie 15 year is aged entirely in an ex-Oloroso sherry butt. A butt is a type of cask standard for aging sherry, approximately 475-500 liters. Because of the larger size, there is less surface area per amount of liquid and thus the cask impact is lessened. This may be why this particular offering spends its entire life in the same sherry butt, as opposed to other releases where the sherry cask is used only at the end. Unlike other age statement single malts, which contain a variety of ages with only the youngest listed, this Balvenie is 15 years only, no younger or no older.
Glenrothes Vintage 1998
The Glenrothes has a way of categorizing their scotch that is markedly different than most other distilleries. Rather than bearing a standard age statement or name in lieu of one, the Glenrothes labels their offerings by the year in which the barrels were first laid down. The bottle details tell you when the scotch was bottled, letting you do your own math to figure out the age. The Vintage 1998 is from their Core Vintage line, though there are Reserve, Special Release, and Classic lines too.
BenRiach 16 Year
The BenRiach distillery has been through some rough times since it’s founding in 1898. Unfortunately, it has been susceptible to the booms and busts of the industry over the past century and more, closing a number of times in lean years but always coming back. Even when whisky production was halted, however, some aspect of the place still functioned, even if only to product floor maltings sold to other distilleries. It has been owned by Glenlivet, Seagrams, and the BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd. before being sold to the Brown-Forman Corporation in 2016. Starting in the 60s, the distillery has expanded and evolved with each transition and each challenge. For most of its history, it was used as a component in blends and was not released as a BenRiach malt until 1994. Along with this BenRiach 16, the core line is comprised of 10 and 20 year offerings, along with a ranges featuring peat, wood finishes, and premium expressions.