The Balvenie unveils the final chapter in The Balvenie DCS Compendium Chapter Five, titled “Malt Master’s Indulgence.” The release is the last of the Compendium series and is comprised of five rare vintages carefully selected by Malt Master David C. Stewart MBE for their significance to his career.
As one of the whisky industry’s longest-serving Malt Masters, with just over 57 years’ experience, Stewart’s selections for Chapter Five is a nod to his greatest indulgence – hand-picking unique casks.
Aged between 16 and 56 years, the five expressions include the oldest ever whisky to be released by The Balvenie – a fragrant and sweet 1962 vintage (aged 56 years), taken from a European oak Oloroso sherry hogshead, that commemorates Stewart’s very first year at the distillery. The 1974 vintage celebrates the year of his appointment as Malt Master, while the 1983 vintage marks the start of his experimentation with maturation. The 2001 vintage European oak Fino sherry butt represents the freedom Stewart has been entrusted with throughout his career. Finally, a 2002 vintage first-fill American oak bourbon barrel signifies his involvement in the reintroduction of The Week of Peat at the distillery after a fifty-year hiatus.
“It takes a good deal of time to understand how each cask differs and how whisky maturation is affected by various wood types,” says Stewart. “You need confidence to select casks and know which are likely to achieve greatness. Working for a family company, I’ve been lucky enough to have been given the freedom to make stock decisions based on my preference and vision, with the free rein to pick casks and hold on to whisky, not always knowing what I’m going to do with it, for no other reason than thinking one day it will be extraordinary. For me, this is indulgence in its truest form.”
In 1962, Stewart was 17 when he began working as a stock clerk at The Balvenie distillery. It was in this role that he learned some of the most important skills of a successful Malt Master including how cask inventory works, how to manage stock and understanding how each cask can be unique in its own way. Stewart later started in the distillery and in 1974 became The Balvenie Malt Master. Now he mentors Apprentice Malt Master, Kelsey McKechnie, passing on his knowledge to the next generation.
The unveiling of Chapter Five follows the annual release of four other chapters since October 2015: ‘Distillery Style’, ‘The Influence of Oak’, ‘Secrets of the Stock Model’ and ‘Expecting the Unexpected.’ The full collection is comprised of 25 outstandingly rare single cask single malts, representing Stewart’s lifetime of skill and knowledge in liquid form.
As with past Chapters in The Balvenie DCS Compendium, Chapter Five is presented in a handcrafted frame, produced by Scottish craftsman Sam Chinnery. Chapter Five has been crafted from European oak, which has been fumed to create a beautifully rich and dark wood, and each set has an individual number engraved on the frame, showing it is one of just 50 sets available worldwide.
Each set is accompanied by The Balvenie DCS Compendium book, written by former Balvenie Global Ambassador Dr. Samuel J. Simmons. The book, signed by Stewart, features rare archive imagery from The Balvenie distillery, along with information on each of the five DCS Compendium chapters, which documents the thought process taken by David in curating the compendium.
The Balvenie DCS Compendium Chapter Five will be available for SRP $80,000.
