BenRiach 16 Year

Nose: rhubarb crumble, touch of chocolate, apple tart crust, custard, tiramisu, red wine, musty red grape skin, toffee Taste: salt, oaky, spice, red apples, winey, nothing peaty, slight walnut Finish: salt, tea This smells better than it tastes but the palate improved after a while in the glass, and again with a drop of water - less salty and tannic. It doesn’t remind me of any other scotches. In fact it more closely compares to some wine-aged Irish malts from the Cooley distillery that I have tried. I got this 3cl sample in a gift pack from Tasting.com and the accompanying booklet shows the image of this regular 16yo which is ex-bourbon cask matured. But my guess is I was given the 16yo Sauternes Finish. I tasted this alongside BenRiach’s Septendecim and for me this was better.

I am a small fanboy of BenRiach. I like them for their incredible range and a lot of courage with some interesting exotic cask flavors to their really great traditional Speyside character. There were a few expressions that I didn’t like too much but the most of what I had was really good. That is why I had the 16y on my wishlist for some time. I had a dram of it before but after that I found out that it isn’t in production anymore. But then some day when I was browsing through the shelves of my favorite local whisky shop I encountered a surprise. In that store (because of alphabetical order) BenRiach is located at the very bottom of one of the B-shelves. I knew all BenRiach bottles they had there but suddenly there was a hole where a week before the last Temporis bottle was standing. I kneeled down to see if there was a bottle to be put to the front again (minor OCD ;) ) and there it was: a really dusty white tube with a bright blue printed “16” on the front. I couldn’t believe it - all this time there was still a bottle hidden behind the front row of other expressions. And it still had the original price of 54€ (around 64$) too where online it goes for at least 50% more if you can even find it. This bottle is a 2015 batch and must be one of the last ones before they removed it from the lineup. So here we go. Nose: I poured this neat into a Norlan glass and after just a few minutes the whole room is filled with that very familiar BenRiach aroma. Dried fruit, oranges, toffee, baked apple, raw grainy cereals, intense baking spices, a bid like fresh pale beer, sour prickly candy, generally more on the sweet side, rich with a nice complexity. Palate: slightly sweet, fruity, lightly spicy, nutshells, dried fruit cooked in those spices with orange oil, charred wood, fruity candy drops Finish: oaky, a good bunch of herbal essential oils, slightly acidic like the mentioned orange oil, less fruity and more spices with rich cask-wood aromas, it ends with a delightful chili burn with wood and spices. (Whatever you do - don’t add water. It really doesn’t do it any good but dilutes it unnecessarily and spreads the nicely put together aromas apart. Reduces all of what you discovered earlier.) A very nice and enjoyable whisky. Not too complicated but with a some nice contrasting variety between smell and taste that in combination are just great. I like it.

Maroon Label Nose: Red delicious apples, vanilla, light honey, graham crackers, a little potpourri and a little non-sweet strawberries. Palate: Vanilla, light honey and red delicious apples are at the front. Then, you get some graininess with graham crackers and light coconut. The strawberries come out a little with a touch of water. Mouthfeel: Medium, with some oiliness. Finish: Spicy with cardamom, cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns, oak tannins, orange pith/bitters. A touch of potpourri. A little bourbon-like cherry. Overall: Very nice lighter scotch with very good balance and overall construction. Lacks the wow factor to score higher, but this is still a very good creamy/fruity whisky.

Tasting it neat I get smoke and honey. With water the smoke is diminished, honey and banana taste become stronger.

Nose: Sweet, honeyed cereal. Nuts, sweet white grapes and barley sugar. Apricots, orange zest and vanilla emerge over time. Water develops a light peach aroma. Palate: Sweet but drying on the entry - elegant and austere rather than voluptuous, which the nose might lead you to expect. Cereal and malt in the development which turns from cereal towards woody in the finish. There are, however, many sweet and honeyed fruit notes on the mid-palate with orange oil and vanilla particularly on display. Some tannic spice lunges forward towards the finish but the texture is creamy and full. Finish: Medium. Sweet and fruity, even crisp in a way. The aftertaste is rather like over-brewed English breakfast tea, but it's nice in context. The nose is particularly sweet and fragrant - very honeyed and luscious and a particularly good example of a non-sherried full-bodied "fruity" nose. The palate is creamy and fruity but with a spicy note that takes over in mid-palate and may seem a little too dominant. I did not notice any particularly smoky aspect to the profile at all - maybe some barrel char, but no reek. Water reacts oddly here, bringing out both sweet and bitter/spicy notes on the palate. In fact, overall it's a development of sour malty cereal characteristics more than anything else. Interesting, but perhaps a little challenging. I'd rate this between the 12 year sherry wood and the 10 year old. Tasted from a 30ml sample. "Above Average" : 82/100 (3.25 stars)