Malt Mission 2008 #258

Benriach 1984, 22yo
Single Malts of Scotland
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
53.2% abv
£65

Seagrams [the Canadian company under whose ownership many distilleries nearly vanished from the earth forever] neglected this speyside distillery when it was in their control (1978-2001) but today, in the capable hands of a passionate team of talented whisky makers, BenRiach is a critically acclaimed and widely well-regarded malt whisky.

Single cask expressions of BenRiach have been available over the past few years and Single Malts of Scotland have released a few now-legendary bottlings, especially those from the peated spirit that BenRiach produced. The distillery was producing peated spirit (since 1983) and unpeated spirit to provide for Seagrams' blended whiskies. I am quite excited to sink my teeth in.

All Single Malts of Scotland bottlings had on the mission can be seen HERE. For more BenRiach distillery (pronoucned ben-REE-akh) info and to see all whiskies from the distillery had on the mission, click HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Mmm, sweet and creamy but full of smoke. Peaches, yogurt, vanilla icing, raw chicken, carrot cake, and even a sour note like grapefruits or hard kiwis. With time, some raw fish or pickled cauliflower. Smoke and matches are in the conversation of flavour, but the juicy sweetness is speaking with the loudest voice.

Bam! Big impact that is sweet, burnt, and peaty. Honey, spice, pepper, charred bacon fat, citrus, wood toothpick that you have had in your mouth for too long. A bit of a coffee flavour in there as the finish of peat, brown toast, and marmalade linger. Bacon crisps and beef jerky flavours as well. It goes on...

SUMMARY:

Um... total complete sweet peat treat. Delicious.

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Malt Mission 2007 #149

Benriach 12yo 'Heredotus Fumosus'
Pedro Ximenez Finish
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
46%
£28.50

Although the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2007 says that BenRiach is one of the easiest distilleries to find, we drove past it twice when we visited back in 2005. Clever university students...

BenRiach was opened in 1898, the same year as Benromach(tasted Monday), and it proved to be a pretty shitty time to open a distillery. The Pattison crash came just a few months later and a depression in the whisky industry naturally followed. The distillery was built as a sort of sister distillery to Longmorn who used barley malted on BenRiach's maltings floor through the post-Pattison years. It wasn't until 1965, a great era for the whisky industry, that BenRiach was refurbished and re-opened. The maltings continued to operate until 1999, are still in working condition, and will likely be used again by the current owners.

Intra Trading with Burn Stewart's former director, Billy Walker, purchased the distillery from Pernod Ricard (who had mothballed it in 2002) in 2004 and are the current owners. The core range consists of a peated and an unpeated line. The heavily peated expressions are called Curiositas (10yo, and currently on offer from an already great RRP at Royal Mile Whiskies) and Authenticus(21yo). They also have a 12, 16 and 20 year old, the latter of which is somewhat peaty and absolutely excellent(and also currently on offer at RMW!). But beyond that it all gets a bit confusing, especially for the newcomer to the wide world of whisky. BenRiach has released over twenty(!) limited editions since 2006 and rival Bruichladdich for an ever expanding range of whiskies with funky names and colourful labels. With an absolutely stellar core range, I kind of wish they would just pull in the reins a touch and focus on those before we all get scared away.

This is a limited release of 3180 bottles. All BenRiachs tasted on the mission can be found HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Old soft peaches, gummy bears, subdued sherry spice and sweet smoke. Lemon zest, fudge and a big cushion of peat.

Oak, old library books, toffeed malt and puffs of peat smoke. Floral among the dense earthiness. Drying sherry with herbs and some spice. Plastic and petrol in the finish, which I really enjoyed, against a oily background of hazelnuts, ginger and smoke.

SUMMARY:

Smoke, sherry, flowers and petrol. Really interetsing stuff, and so drinkable. There has been a similar sweet and sour element to all three of these BenRiach peated wood finishes, with the second maturation adding particular ornamentation, taking the flavour profiles in three distinct directions. But you can sense the consistent distillery character beneath it all, which I found really interesting. I would have to try these as a part of an evening to decide which was my favourite, but I can say it was probably not the port finished one.

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Malt Mission 2007 #148

BenRiach 12yo 'Arumaticus Fumosus'
Dark Rum Finish
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
46% abv
£28.50

Yeah, these are peaty, smoky Speyside whiskies. Sound unusual? Well, it is, but far from unheard of, so don't feel stupid.

When William Teacher built Ardmore Distillery in Aberdeenshire in 1891, it was specifically intended to produce a heavily peated malt (and an unpeated one) to fill out the flavour profile of the still delicious Teacher's Highland Cream. Other blending houses made similar investments, and when Canadian company Seagram's bought Chivas Brothers, Longmorn and BenRiach were part of the deal. BenRiach's malting floors were then used to malt barley of varied peat levels for itself and for its neighbour (Longmorn) and they began laying down peated BenRiach for maturation and eventual use in various Seagram-owned blended whiskies.

Since BenRiach became an independently owned distillery in 2004 (more history tomorrow), they have continued to lay down peated whisky and have two standard peated expressions in their range: Curiositas(10yo) and Authenticus(21yo). They are both award-winning, critically acclaimed and enjoyed by yours truly (and his better half).

This particular expression is limited to 1740 bottles, the latin bit means 'smoky rum', and it is part of a 12yo peated wood finished series released June 28, 2007. All BenRiachs tasted on the mission can be found HERE.

TASTING NOTES:

Sweet and sour, savoury smokiness that comes with rum spice. Avocado, grass, smoked fish all wound up in red grapes and raisins and rum. Some oil paints, too.

Good body in the mouth. Wood, paper fire smoke, mackerel. Floral sweetness, coconut or papaya extract or vanilla or some kind of tropical sweetness that doesn't overplay its part. Long finish of apple skins, chevril, oak and peatsmoke.

SUMMARY:

Lightly coloured but heavily flavoured. Wonderfully well-integrated impressions on the nose spanning from phenolic to floral to feinty and ticking all the boxes for complexity. And a tight package on the palate, too. Very drinkable and would please any peat freak. All in all, a very satisfying smoky dram... from Speyside(!)

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Malt Mission 2007 #147

Benriach 12 yo 'Importanticus Fumosus'
Tawny Port Finish
Speyside Single Malt Whisky
46% abv
£28.50

This will be the first BenRiach to be enjoyed as a part of the Malt Mission, and the first of 3 new BenRiach releases we will be tasting over the next few days.

We will always remember our visit to BenRiach back in Spring 2005, as will everyone who was there with us. We were a big group of self-educating whisky nerds (and others along for the malt-infused ride, "cask strength is my favourite region") who spent 3 days visiting different historic and alcoholic locations in Speyside. Alan McConnochie, Master Distiller at BenRiach, welcomed us warmly and began to show us parts of this historic, and only recently resurrected, distillery (more history over the next few days). There were no rules, no roped-off areas, he didn't patronise us with rehearsed tour-talk, and he opened all the doors and effectively let us explore any area that we wanted at will. We all met by the kiln after some time where, surrounded by peat on three sides, he took us through a tasting of four of the distillery's expressions. A wonderful experience. Thanks, Alan!

This expression is limited to 2520 bottles and is part of a trio of heavily peated wood finishes. Yes, they each have the totally unnecessary latinisms that both attract and repel people, as was seen first-hand at the Whisky Fringe. I am not sure how it fares on shop shelves.

But how is the whisky?

TASTING NOTES:

Smoke underneath sour fruits. Coconut suncream. White pepper and lemon.

Not as sweet as expected, granny smith, then oak and (BOOM) smoke. Chewy density with some hospital characteristics: gauze, iodine, hand wash. A little but of chilli, ginger, and vinegar. Meringue sweetness and citrus linger with smoke through the finish.

SUMMARY:

Most port finishes I have tried simply don't work for me; they tend to give off smells of bile or baby sick/vomit. In this case, I found more in common with Bowmore's janitor's closet characteristic (on the nose). Sure, neither read like very positive impressions, but there they are, so take your pick. I would say that the port adds an island characteristic to this whisky, and with the added peat we do get something similar to a Ledaig or Bowmore.

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