

November 2022
Balcones Portucale
Created Exclusively for The Whisky Club
World-first, world-exclusive, Best-in-Class Gold Medal winning TRIPLE Portuguese cask from America’s most awarded malt whisky distillery.
Single Malt
Colour
Deep maroonNose
Fresh orange, rich tropical fruits, and caramelised oak.Palate
Homemade apple and sultana pie, vanilla ice cream and fresh jam doughnut.What makes this whisky so special
A world-exclusive, Best-in-Class Gold Medal winning TRIPLE Portuguese cask using two of the rarer fortified wines in the world, Carcavelos and White Port. It’s true, they do everything bigger in Texas.
Continuing the theme of ‘best of the best,’ we’ve teamed up with the most awarded malt distillery in the US to bring you Balcones Portucale, the first ever triple Portuguese fortified wine cask-matured whisky. And not just any old Portuguese wine; Portucale adds Madeira to two of the rarest fortified wines in the world to create a showstopping medley of flavour.
You’ll love the aroma of rich tropical fruits with caramelised oak. The palate picks up homemade apple and sultana pie and fresh jam doughnut while the finish is sticky fruits rounded off with decadent dark chocolate.
Only one other distiller has ever released whisky from a Carcavelos cask. With only 10 hectares of grapes, this is a fortified wine that can be filed under ultra-rare. And so little White Port is aged in barrels that whisky makers rarely get to see any.
And get this. Balcones use the same Golden Promise barley that turbocharged 1970s and 80s The Macallan, and with kit imported from Scotland it’s no surprise that they are seen as the flagbearers of American malt.
Balcones has already been reaping in the accolades. It scored best in class and a gold award at IWSC’s Whiskies of the World. And that’s before our Members even get hold of it. In the words of the distillers themselves, “F*%! This is so good we can’t believe we’re sending it to Australia.”
Not yet a Member? Sign up free now, and watch this space for more from these Lone Star legends.
The Specs
- Price
- $150.00
- Age
- No Age Statement (NAS)
- ABV
- 58.0%
- Maturation
- Three Portuguese fortified cask types: White Port, Madeira, and Carcavelos
- Country
- United States
Distillery Facts
- Region
- Texas
- Origin
- 225 S 11th St, Waco, TX 76701, United States
- Founded
- 2008
- Water source
- Local springs created by the Balcones Fault
- Washbacks
- 7, stainless
- Stills
- 4 (2 wash, 2 spirit)
Member reviews
Here’s what’s coming up for Members
THE OLDEST EVER 100% ISLAY BARLEY BATCH
November 2026 Whisky of the Month
Bruichladdich Islay Barley Unpeated 14 Year Old, Club Exclusive Batch
The oldest ever 100% Islay barley Bruichladdich batch is coming, and Members of the Club get it before anyone else in the world. “This is Bruichladdich at its absolute peak.” Unpeated, 14 years old, made entirely using the rare remnants of 2011’s vintage stocks.