In late 2022, the Balvenie, the famed Speyside distillery founded by William Grant in 1892, released The Balvenie Sixty single malt. Its price tag — $145,000 for one of the 71 bottles available worldwide — drew at least as much attention as any of the relevant details about the whisky itself, or the story behind it. Is the price tag something you can taste? Having tasted it, and other whiskies that sell for the equivalent of a fancy sports car, I can attest that it doesn’t really work that way, although it is indeed delicious (tasting notes to follow!). It’s more about the provenance — the journey the liquid took to get into the bottle. It’s about the rarity and exclusivity, of course. It’s about the bells and whistles that come along with the bottle. So what makes this whisky stand out, even among the many standout bottlings in the history of the Balvenie? Let’s find out.
IT’S THE OLDEST WHISKY IN THE DISTILLERY’S HISTORY. The Balvenie has never released a 60-year-old whisky until now. There are multiple reasons for that, the most important being that hardly any whiskies make it to six decades in oak without tasting like a piece of wood at best or, at worst, becoming virtually undrinkable. But the market for super-annuated, and super-expensive, whiskies has also ramped up considerably in the last 10-15 years. Distilleries are now on high alert for those rare casks that have stood the test of time. Interesting side note: the cask was laid down almost a decade before the first Balvenie single malt was bottled by the distillery — until the early 1970s, it was used almost entirely in blended Scotches.
The brass-and-glass packaging of the Balvenie Sixty is, let's face it, pretty cool.
IT’S THE FINAL RELEASE FROM ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FIGURES IN THE HISTORY OF SCOTCH WHISKY. The Balvenie Sixty was laid down in 1962, the year David C. Stewart started working at the distillery as a whisky stocks clerk. A dozen years later, he had ascended to the rank of Malt Master — overseeing the distillation, aging process, and blending of all the whiskies at the distillery. An important job, to be sure, but Stewart transcended his position and became a defining figure in Scotch whisky history, most notably for his pioneering double-maturation technique. Before Stewart launched the Balvenie Classic (now known as Doublewood), no commercially released whisky had ever been aged in one kind of cask — generally ex-bourbon — and then recasked, or “finished,” it in another — in the case of the Classic, Oloroso sherry. Nowadays, it’s so common as to be unremarkable. But Stewart and the Balvenie were there first. If that’s not enough of a claim to fame, Stewart also contributed to the design of the Glencairn glass, which is now the default vessel for sipping whisky worldwide. His contributions were such that he was presented with an MBE (Member of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2016.
IT’S A SYMBOLIC, AND UNIQUE, PASSING OF THE TORCH. David Stewart is only the fifth malt master in the 130-plus year history of the Balvenie. The Balvenie Sixty was signed off on by Stewart and his successor, Kelsey McKechnie, who became the sixth Balvenie malt master in 2023 (Stewart is still with the brand as Honorary Ambassador), along with warehouse manager George Paterson. The Sixty is the only Balvenie expression helmed by both Stewart and McKechnie, and the only bottle to sport both their signatures.
Sitting around, sipping a $145,000 whisky... as one does.
IT’S A SINGLE “UNICORN” CASK. More than a million barrels of whisky are aging in the warehouses of the Balvenie and its sister distillery, Glenfiddich, so the cask that was used for the Balvenie Sixty, first singled out by Paterson and McKechnie, is literally one in a million. Balvenie brand ambassador Naomi Leslie says, “When you release something very old, it's normally a marriage of multiple casks, because whisky at that age can be very intense and you usually need a few different casks to find the right flavor profile. But in the case of this one, it was actually a single barrel.”
Leslie adds, “David [Stewart] often says that whiskies, once they pass about 30 years or so, take on kind of a ‘more than whiskey’ magical quality that can be genuinely hard to account for. I mean, of course the oxidation for that many years, but also, just that much time [in] the wood, it can become a little bit mysterious, which David said is half the fun.” The cask used for the Balvenie Sixty was a refill Oloroso sherry European oak hogshead. “Refill” means it had been previously used more than once before it held the whisky. As a result, the wood had a lower level of tannins — the stuff that tastes like oak — to impart to the whisky. And that’s part of the reason it was able to age so long without tasting like you’re licking a tree trunk. Only 71 bottles’ worth of liquid remained in the cask after the angels had taken their share through evaporation; a mere eight are available in the U.S.
Malt Master David C. Stewart contemplating his outsized legacy.
THE PACKAGING IS UNIQUE... AND SERIOUSLY COOL. You wouldn’t buy a whisky for the design alone, but the package really does do justice to the whisky and then some. The bottle is on a brass base encased in five glass tubes, each one emblazoned with a quotation from Stewart etched in gold. According to the Balvenie website, “The tube casing was designed to reflect layers of memories from David’s career.” The bottle itself has a statement from McKechnie, also in gold. It’s a little hard to describe, so have a look at the photo above if you’re having trouble envisioning it.
YES, IT DOES TASTE DELICIOUS. I’m guessing that relatively few of the bottles sold will actually be consumed — the Sixty is not so much a bottle of single malt Scotch as an investment, or an heirloom. But if you’re on the fence and want to know if it’s a decent dram, here goes. Most whiskies get more austere and elegant as they age, increasingly dry to the point of astringency. Not so with the Balvenie Sixty. Big, sweet aromas of marzipan and coconut lead into intense fruity notes on the palate. Candied orange peel and the Balvenie’s signature honey sweetness, though in more intense and concentrated form, come to the fore, along with a surprising touch of cooling eucalyptus. It’s pleasantly spicy, but where most older whiskies have a peppery spice from the oak, the Sixty is more cinnamon and clove. The finish is very long — a little sweet, a little spicy, a little oaky. And keep in mind the Balvenie’s official tasting notes may be completely different, I’m just reporting what I tasted (minus the “Oh wow, this is great”s that punctuated the tasting session).
IT’S PRICED TO NOT MOVE, AT LEAST NOT SO QUICKLY. This is a hunch, but I suspect the Balvenie priced the Sixty so stratospherically high that it would take a while to sell even the 71 bottles produced. Rather than have them all instantly disappear into the hands of private collectors, they’ve kept the buzz going for a year and change now, going so far as to open a pop-up installation at the Incheon airport in South Korea with the Sixty as the centerpiece. And of course the price tag makes any other expression of the Balvenie seem like a bargain by comparison — even the 50 Year Old, which sells in the neighborhood of $50,000. (My personal favorite is the now-discontinued 17 Year Old Rum Cask, which can still be found online for around $500-700.)
IT’S A WHISKY YOU CAN DANCE TO, SORT OF. Warehouse manager George Paterson, who drew attention to the cask that became the Sixty, made a playlist of songs from 1962, the year it was laid down. “I’ve always enjoyed curating a special playlist based on the specific year of the barrel I’m working on,” he says. “I love how each unique playlist transports me back in time to different eras of music, and appreciate how music evolved over the years, much like our range of whiskies. Working on this particular cask, I imagined a young David C. Stewart... going into the office singing along to songs like ‘Moon River’ by Andy Williams, or even ‘Twist And Shout’ by The Isley Brothers. Envisioning this scenario puts a smile on my face and even makes me chuckle!” It’s well worth a listen, and unlike the whisky, the playlist is free.
SO... IS IT WORTH IT? For the vast majority of us, the point is moot, as we don’t have $145,000 to blow on a bottle of whisky. And though I’m a huge fan of the Balvenie, even if I did have that kind of loot, I’m not sure the Sixty would be the bottle I’d purchase. But that’s based more on my personal affinity for “old dusties” — whiskies that were bottled decades or centuries ago — than for any shortcomings of the Sixty. It does tick all the boxes: it’s delicious; it’s beautifully packaged; and it’s historically significant. And it’s certainly fun to think about sipping a dram or two of the Sixty by a roaring fire in a Swiss chalet, or in the dining room of an Italian palazzo, or what have you. If you get the opportunity, don’t pass it up. And if you’re looking to spend $145,000 on a whisky, give me a call — I can help you out.
