Benrinnes 20 Year Old First Cask 1995 Single Cask Sunday Times Club Exclusive (2015) 70cl
Benrinnes 20 Year Old First Cask 1995 Single Cask Sunday Times Club Exclusive (2015) 70cl
An older, muskier tasting direct from the cask bottlings of Speyside's Benrinnes
About 600 bottles were produced as part of the First Cask series which have today become a little more revered.
ABOUT BENRINNES
Located on the lower slopes of Speyside’s sentinel mountain, ‘The Ben’ is another of those intriguing distilleries which produces a highly individual make but which – due to its demand by blenders – has never become a front-line single malt.
It has six stills which are run in two pairs of three. For years a form of partial triple distillation was utilised to help promote a meaty/sulphury new make character. The low wines from the first distillation were split into strong and weak feints. The lower-strength portion was redistilled in the middle still and split into two again, with the stronger part [strong feints] being carried forward, the weaker being retained for the next charge. The strong feints were then mixed with the highest strength distillate from the wash still and redistilled in the spirit still.
Everything is run through worm tubs which are kept very cold, adding weight and meatiness to the spirit. In recent years, this complex distillation has been simplified.
Occasionally seen as an independent bottling, the clearest manifestation of its meaty quality (which puts it in a similar stylistic camp as Dailuaine, Mortlach and Cragganmore) is Diageo’s Flora and Fauna bottling which comes from 100% ex-Sherry matured whisky.
TASTING NOTES
Nose: Bright and fresh with pronounced stone fruits (tinned apricots especially), honey, beeswax and a healthy drop of furniture polish. There’s a mixture of garden-fresh aromas – daffodils, pansies, fresh cotton alongside some greenhouse notes – both fruits and vegetables (oranges and citrus, with carrots). Underpinning is maltiness – toasted cereals with some touches of dried hay. The addition of water really enhances the floralness of this whisky – more cut flowers and touches of herbal tea infusions.
Taste: A lovely arrival with some real textural qualities – oily, almost waxy. Gummy bears lead off – sticky and a little saccharine – these quickly transform on the palate into more expansive juicy fruit – oranges and apricots with touches of lemons and limes. Deeper, there is maltiness (more pronounced than on the nose), dusty dunnage floors and some well-judged pepperiness. In the back palate, the fruits gradually sour and bring with them ginger and clove. Reduced, there’s still some texture here – fattiness becomes more syrupy like tinned fruit salad. Alongside, marzipan and oily wood.
Finish: Quite long, with dusty spices – particularly pepper.
46% ABV
70cl
+44 7538 185 771
42a Throwley Way, Sutton, SM1 4AF
United Kingdom
whiskysituation@hotmail.com
www.whiskysituation.co.uk
Copyright WHISKY SITUATION LTD - Company Number 15136012 VAT: GB 449 5218 70 © 2023 Whisky Situation. All rights reserved. Whisky Situation is a registered trade mark of Whisky Situation LTD.