The ULTIMATE Balvenie Tun 1401 Guide

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The long-awaited Balvenie Tun 1401 article is finally here! I feel like I’ve been preparing my entire whisky-related existence for this post. I truly hope you enjoy the result of years of dedication to a whisky that deserves to be celebrated.

Intro

I was first exposed to Tun 1401 in 2011 when Batch 3 (the first US batch) was released. I knew that the series was starting to gain some traction and knew that it had some really old casks in it but didn’t know much else.

I can still remember exactly where I was when I tried Batch 3. My wife and I were sitting on the couch in our first house one unsuspecting evening. I took one sip amidst a conversation and it quite literally stopped me in my tracks. I looked straight at my wife and said, “I think I’m drinking the best whisky I’ll ever have.”

From then on, I knew that I had to try more. I was able to get the other US-based batches (6 and 9) fairly easily and I grabbed a Batch 7 on the way home from a Canada trip. My friend in the UK had a line on Batch 8 for me. At one point, I narrowly missed an opportunity to get my hands on some Batch 4. Eventually I got Batch 5 at an above-retail price. As for the batches I couldn’t track down/afford, a good whisky friend named Sloane helped me acquire samples of the early batches I didn’t have on hand. Thank you! I couldn’t have done this without you!

What’s so special about Tun 1401?

Why Tun 1401? The short answer to that question is because it’s really old, really good whisky that was sold at an incredible price.

Every batch of Tun 1401 is comprised of anywhere from 6-14 casks. That’s it. There’s no filler whisky in these bottles. The capacity of the Tun itself was about 2000 liters so that meant a full batch only ever amounted to 2500-3000 bottles max. These ultra-micro batches are truly a whisky nerd’s dream.

There’s a cool YouTube video by The Balvenie showing the unsurprisingly-old school process of filling the Tun with with the casks that eventually became Batch 3.

Every single batch consists of casks that are 35-45 years old with a single 21 or 22 year old cask added to each batch to bring the strength up. Through years of research, I’ve compiled what I believe to be the most comprehensive worksheet on the Tun 1401 series outside of the distillery itself. Below is a sample of some of the data I’ve collected on each batch. Some of this data is unconfirmed but I’ve made some well-educated guesses that I’m fairly confident about. Let’s take a look at the details.

* Educated Guess

While the batch information is certainly important, this range is all about the casks themselves. Let’s take a look at the data I’ve collected about the individual batches in more detail. Here’s a sample of cask information I have on Batch 8, one of my favorite batches in the series.

See what I’m saying? Some incredible whisky went into this release.

What about the price? Let’s explore 30 and 40 year old Balvenie today. The 30 Year official release retails for around $1,000 in the US while the 40 year hovers around the $5,000 mark. Those big age statements command a huge asking price. These Tun 1401 barrels sold as single casks would likely retail for $20,000-$30,000 each in today’s market.

Because of the younger barrel added to each batch, Tun 1401 never carried an age statement but I always tell people you could causally call these releases “35ish year old whisky”. Tun 1401 batches retailed for $249 in the US and I often found bottles for under that retail price on shelves. I only ever paid over retail price for Batch 5 which was unattainable for me without going through international channels.

The range was discontinued in 2014 in favor of Tun 1509, a marrying vessel with four times the capacity of Tun 1401. I created this image soon after to express my true sorrow.

Blind Tasting The Entire Range

The idea to blind taste the entire range at once was a project almost two years in the making. A good portion of that time involved tracking down all nine batches and included a full, year-long tasting ban of any Tun 1401 to reset my palate. I also decided to add in the 2010 release of Balvenie 30 Year to see how it stacked up against Tun 1401. Once the samples were ready, I needed to find a time when my brother and I could taste through ten half-oz samples in one lengthy sitting. That day finally came one December afternoon.

We tasted these samples five at a time in two back-to-back sessions over the course of an afternoon. There were no distractions and we didn’t discuss our notes or impressions of what we were drinking until the tasting was over. If you’d like to play along, I’ve hidden the reveal of each sample so you can try and guess which pour is which. I also decided not to include ratings or scores here. This is my favorite whiskey of all time so including a bunch of 97s, 98s, and 99s out of 100 isn’t particularly insightful in my opinion.

With that, here are the results of the only blind tasting ever done on the entire Balvenie Tun 1401 range.

Tasting Notes

Results

As it turns out, I seem to gravitate toward the more heavily sherried releases in Batches 5 and 8. These batches were also UK market batches. They saved the really good stuff for themselves it seems. I was also surprised to learn that the incredibly rare and expensive Batch 1 was not even in my top five.

Batch 3 had a tough slot in the lineup. I wonder if my palate was too fatigued to be able to properly evaluate this heavy hitting batch after nine other samples. I had some Batch 3 recently and was once again blown away by it. I’d be really curious to see how this experiment would have played out in a different order.

Adding the 30 Year into the lineup proved to be quite interesting. I found the 30 to be extremely similar to Batch 9. At the time of its release, Batch 9 was retailing for about 25%-35% of the cost of the 30 Year.

My brother and I didn’t totally agree on our rankings but we both had batches 5, 6, and 8 in our top five and both had batches 1 and 7 in our bottom three.

This probably goes without saying, but if you ever get the opportunity to try this amazing whisky, I would HIGHLY recommend it.