by 
Balvenie Cuban Selection 14 Year Old Single Malt. Speyside, Scotland. ABV: 43.0%. Tasted at home, $130 (bottle).
Colour: Deep golden honey.
Nose: A little more abrupt than I was expecting; a fair whiff of alcohol along with some orange peel notes.
Palate: Lots of vanilla and sweet oak. Much smoother than the nose suggests. Lots of flavour complexity, gentle spices and a bit of peppery heat at the front of the palate.
Finish: Sweet spices, not too much heat. Flavours stick around longer than the warmth, especially the sweet notes.
Comments: As a keen pirate sailor with a penchant for a nice rum, I was rattling my cutlass with excitement to crack open this bottle that has spent some final time maturing in barrels that previously held Cuban rum. I really liked it, especially the palate (not so much the nose). It’s not a world-beater but certainly a great whisky to have in the collection at home which offers something a little different to others.
I was perhaps expecting something a little more unusual, I would have expected the extra maturation in rum barrels to have a more significant impact on the whisky’s flavour profile, making it sweeter especially. In hindsight, maybe I was expecting some more spiced rum flavours coming through, but perhaps given that Cuban rum tends to be lighter than other Caribbean rums it’s perhaps not so surprising.