Another BenRiach I used for a tasting at work last year. A tasting where 22 people emailed me to join in and only 9 showed up. Yes, I’m still annoyed by that.
Anyway, I used this BenRiach to compare unpeated and peated whisky. The contrasting bottle was also a BenRiach, but a smoky one. It worked, and it wasn’t too confronting for whisky noobs to get the smoky version, compared to what a Laphroaig would have been.
This whisky matured in a mix of Bourbon, Sherry and Port casks. So in regards to flavor it can go in any direction.
Sniff:
Lots of sweet pastry, yellow fruits and quite a bit of honey. There’s a bit more grainy dryness after a few minutes. Apple, dried pineapple, coconut.
Sip:
A very consistent palate, with honeyed fruits, a very timid note of charcoal. Pound cake, warm butter, coconut.
Swallow:
The finish is a bit more dry. More grain forward, slightly woody and with lots of sweetness.
The bourbon cask is the one that’s most present, but my guess was that that was the majority of casks anyway. The combination of wood makes for a rather sweet whisky with heaps of bakery aromas and flavors going on. I feel the spirit gets lost in the woods, a little bit.
I was far more impressed by the smoky twelve.
82/100