Tastes

Slight jammy peat, port and a hint of blue cheese on the nose. The palate really is very lovely. To be honest I consider Benriach to be Glendronach's poor younger brother. It mostly aspires to goodness but rarely greatness, its spirit is thinner, missing Glendronach's viscous richness. I do however keep trying them as I'm always interesting in the various combinations of casking and distll they throw together. (I have my eye next on a tokaj cask finish which I had to google to see what it was - Hungarian wine). This is definitely up there amongst the highest I've rated for this distillery. Anyway back to the spirit. I love a good rich sherry casking and a good peated spirit and this marries prefectly. I usually let a dram rest after the initial sip often drinking it over an hour but this is so good I keep diving back in. All the nose stuff plus rum raisin, sugary prunes, toffee, cherry, fig, wood, leather and more. This is at least a 4.5 maybe even an almost unheard of 4.75 as the balance is perfect. Aftertaste is slow and warming. I rate this higher than the laga distillers Edition which to be honest on both sampling and drinking a whole bottle of I wasn't blown away with. @LeeEvolved I see you have a bottle of the 22 year. Hopefully the extra 4 years doesn't over cook it and add wood bitterness as this has zero of that. Please let me know how you find the 22 year. If it's as awesome as @Dreaming-of-Islay and I found the 18 I'll be breaking my rare bottle buying drought - several months running - and getting a bottle (18 yr is sadly sold out) I rate this as my top Benriach equal to the 1977 38 year port cask I had, maybe better.

An interesting drop. It's a dram of two halves. Marzipan / christmas cake icing honey, vanilla and hint of green apple on the nose. Palate expands on that with slight spicey burnt caramel oakiness. Initially I mistook it for metalic, plasticky ethanolly bitterness although that comes through more prominently on the aftertaste which lets it down a bit after the nose. Hard one to rate. 3.5. But for the aftertaste it would have been higher. Slightly disappointed given the reputation of the distillery.

I really quite enjoyed this dram. It didn't beat the laga 16 I had but definitely was better than the weird noted laga distillers ed. It was an interesting combination of peat and sweetness. The peat was heavy on the ppm but didn't have the deep rounded richness of a laga 16 or laph 10. It had a bit of a harsher note at the end but I liberally applied water and it worked wonders; the harsh note was muted and the flavours intensified. Both the peat and vanilla sweetness were quite crisp and sharp but still came together nicely. I'd definitely like to try more of this. Update Oct '19 After buying and working through a bit of a bottle more I realized 1) Whilst perfectly drinkable at 50% optimal flavor and texture for me dictates water to be added 2) It's a solid 4. Nice lovely mild peat but not a great deal of complexity. I rated the Bunnahabhain 18 4.25 to 4.5 and that I'm always keen to drink.. this I'm not hanging out for. Update 2 Jan 2020: After working my way through a good chunk of a liter bottle I'm thinking more a 3.5 to 3.75 as it gets quite thin, acidic and bitter. It really doesn't last well. Quite a step down from the Loch Gorm 2019 I've been pairing it with.

I had this whilst on a rare overnighter which meant I was back at my favorite whiskey bar with a couple of mates. Nose was interesting. I got bubblegum scent and on the palate floral and light honey and vanilla. To busy chatting to gather much more but nice dram, one of the better japanese offerings I've had in the price range. 3.5 to 3.75. Update: Another year another sample. Smells almost like mild mescal. 3.5 I reckon lower range of what i once thought.

I've had a few Kavalans now and they've all been yeah not to bad...but. This has none of the but about it. Initially I thought argh its going to be weird dr pepper sweet cherry thing going on based on the nose and yes there is a bit of that going on but its very well balanced by the rest of the components. I finally get what Kavalan is about with this drop. Rich wooded sherry, tabbaco leaves, prunes, burnt caramel, creme brulee cherry and a load more. This is very very good. The colour is like a rich pinot noir wine and the nose subtlety hints at the underlying flavours without any ethanol blast, nor on the palate. The aftertaste is slightly sickly cherry sweet which takes it down a notch and I dunno if I could drink loads of this, I'm more a dryer Oloroso sherry Finish person than PX style. Pure ongoing drink ability I'd rate lower perhaps in the 4 - 4.25 level but on overall quality and experience it's a 4.5. It reminds me of the Bruch Black Art 4.1 in a way...profile completely different but a great dram marred slightly by the over sweetness. Still I demolished the dram in record time with only a few drops of water to accentuate the flavour. Very, very well done.

Definitely a quality drop. As people have noted, apple pear and honey are the predominant flavours. It's quite a gentle dram quite wispy and elegant. Balance is good. It's not a dram that blows you away though, the aftertaste is faint, short with slight tongue tingling bitterness although that mellows as you get into the dram. Definitely not worth the money for a bottle but then again I personally often find that the case with a number of the very older drams I've had.

Tried this one straight up and was impressed how easily it went down. The taste included notes of prunes, burnt caramel, brown sugar and over the top of it all was a quite strong flavour of molasses. As Lee mentioned it's definitely a weird taste. It's constructed very well this drop but the flavour profile isn't for me as it's a bit odd..similar to east asian desserts which often have weird sweet flavours e.g. sweet bean curd. It's a hard one to rate, quality and balance high, flavour profile fair bit lower. 3.75 - 4 I think. It's not one I'd drink a lot of. This is the third Kavalan I've had and over all they are a quality drop but not really a distillery that grabs me flavour wise.

Hmm the nose alone was yum. Perfect sweet light ashy peat blend. I really quite like how they have done this Madeira Finish. It really complements the peat. The peat is on the sharper acidic side but it's balanced well by the Madeira. Honey, green grass citrus on the palate. I couldn't drink a bucket load of this as not my style of peating but nice effort.

Thanks @LeeEvolved for adding this entry. I nabbed a sample of this from MoM. Candy Floss, Brown sugar, creme brulee nose, honey suckle and caramel on the nose. On the palate the dark rum, spice comes through as well as well as aforementioned flavors. Aftertaste lets it down a bit with slight gluee bitterness but its still warming. 4 I was thinking for this one but as some drams get better and better others flaws really become more prominent and overpowering....so 3.75 max. it's not a cheap drop either at $200 USD. Don't worry Lee I often find the same off putting bitterness aspect with Macallans which drags most from a higher rating down into 3.75 territory not a problem for most people and yourself so I'm sure you'll enjoy the bottle more than me :-)