Head to head · same category, comparable price
The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old vs Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years
One axis separates these two: sherried, 6 against 3.
Compiled by WhiskeyCask Editorial · Last verified 2026-07-30
Specifications side by side
| The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old | Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Single malt | Single malt |
| Origin | Speyside, Scotland | Islay, Scotland |
| Age | 12 years | 10 years |
| Strength | 43% ABV | 50% ABV |
| Cask | Ex-bourbon barrel, Oloroso sherry butt | First-fill and refill ex-bourbon American oak, ex-wine casks |
| Bottle | 700 ml | 700 ml |
| RRP observed | £50 | £46 |
| Per 10cl | £7.14 | £6.57 |
| Per litre of alcohol | £166 | £131 |
| Chill-filtered | Not stated | No |
What separates them
Both from Scotland: The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old from Speyside, Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years from Islay.
The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old states 12 years, 2 more on paper.
Cask as each producer describes it: The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old in ex-bourbon barrel and oloroso sherry butt, Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years in first-fill and refill ex-bourbon american oak and ex-wine casks.
Chill filtration: The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old does not say, Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years is not.
Colour: The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old silent, Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years natural colour.
The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old: specifications not yet producer-confirmed.
What the price buys
The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old is £4.00 dearer a bottle than Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years.
Strength keeps that ordering: £131 a litre of pure alcohol for Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years against £166.
Across the 32 bottles we can cost this way, The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old is 22nd cheapest and Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years 14th cheapest.
Flavour, compared
View as table
| Axis | The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old | Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years |
|---|---|---|
| Peaty | 0 | 2 |
| Sweet | 8 | 6 |
| Fruity | 6 | 7 |
| Spicy | 4 | 5 |
| Woody | 5 | 5 |
| Sherried | 6 | 3 |
| Cereal | 5 | 6 |
| Oily | 6 | 7 |
That is the only axis of the eight to reach 3 points. Next widest is peaty, 0 against 2.
Level only on woody, 5 each.
Each bottle in its own right
The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old
Honey, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sweet without being cloying, and 43% helps.
Full record →Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years
Barley sugar, sea air and citrus at a proper 50%. Unpeated Islay, which surprises people.
Now carries a 10-year age statement — it was NAS 'Scottish Barley' for years and most sites still publish it that way. Every bottle prints a recipe code that unlocks the exact cask-by-cask recipe and barley origin for that batch, batch disclosure no other major Scotch brand offers. Bottled at 50% rather than the usual 40-46%, which the producer states explicitly.
Full record →No overlap in what we list them for: The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old for gift and after dinner, Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years for value at 50%, transparency and unpeated islay.
Where these specifications come from
Producer and retailer pages for The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old and Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie 10 Aged Years: thebalvenie.com, bruichladdich.com. Figures are what those pages published when we last checked them, on 2026-07-30.