BenRiach Temporis 21 Year

"The virgin oak influence is strong with this one"...DV. Minty peat as RMD indicated. I'm with LE on this one. Nice drop but it'd have been good to see the other casks which I also think have been refilled to nth degree take a front seat. I do struggle with anything '....mint' as well. Benriach peat + great cask finish is often amazing.. this is good but not at that level. I'd rate the 22 yr Moscatel, 18 yr Albarize, single cask port efforts well ahead. Started at 4.25 but that spearmint/ peppermint is really a bit overpowering, slightly artificial and irritating me. Usually it's in bourbons i encounter it but given it's first fill virgin oak heavy it makes sense. 3.5 it ends up at and if I had a bottle I'd have a feeling it'd fall lower as I'd get real tired of it. Interesting I do notice quite a bit of variance in the tasting note descriptions as well...personal taste buds or batches blended differently? If you love minty peat and you have the same batch as this you'll be in love..if not....

Five bottles of BenRiach and three of GlenDronach were lined up for an epic tasting event on Wednesday night, their average age in excess of 21 years. While there wasn’t a bad bottle among them, my clear favorite among the BenRiachs was this 21-year-old, one of two peated whiskies that we sampled. The BenRiach 10 Curiositas, its entry level peated offering, was the only whisky I’d tasted previously from the distillery and I found it pleasant if unremarkable. The 21 is in a different league. The peat has a unique minty quality to the nose that delights with its unfamiliarity. If you could bottle the flavor of a fresh sea breeze, this is what it would taste like: refreshingly crisp, salty and a touch sweet. The minty peat returns on the long finish, swirling in the current of the breeze. Like most of the BenRiachs we tried, this one is a combination of four different barrels, a signature of master blender Rachel Barrie. I came away hugely impressed by the skill with which she balances the flavors and full of admiration for a distillery carving a different path amid a sea of ex-bourbon matured whiskies or wine-cask show-offs. I hope to return to Temporis time and time again.

BenRiach tasting evening, Sydney, June 24 2019. Whisky #5 Nose: Sweet woodsmoke, campfires, aromatic tobacco (in spades!), vanilla, brown sugar, toffee, leather and a little vanilla. There is a phenolic oaky note that is oddly reminiscent of old-fashioned resin circuit boards (in a good way - see below). It's a mellow, soft and relaxing smoky profile. Palate: Soft dark fruit compote arrival (stewed apples, dates, raisins, figs) accompanied by a powerful little puff of phenolic smoke and a burst of soft oakiness. This is much peatier on the palate than the nose. Fruitier as it develops (orchard fruits, tropical fruits), sweet in mid development but eventually drying towards the finish with an aromatic pepper note and some cocoa. Some orange zest and cranberry hints. The texture is velvety and debonair. Finish: Medium/long. Oak, chocolate, a touch of toffee and a hint of dark rum in the aftertaste. The nose is smoky but it is a sweet woodsmoke like the enticing aroma of a meat smoker. The more familiar Islay-style peat-reek is present, but only in a trace amount and it "blows away" fairly quickly. I noted an aroma like burning electrical insulation but this needs some explanation - I don't mean an acrid unpleasant smell at all, it's more like the aroma of an old-style electrical workshop. If you've ever soldered wiring onto phenolic resin turret boards in a high-voltage tube guitar amplifier you'll know precisely what I mean. It's been a couple of years since I last tasted a peated BenRiach and to be honest I was not looking forward to this as they had not previously impressed me. However this is quite different to the earlier expressions and presents a very comfortable "gentleman's smoking lounge" sort of character. It's on the meatier and heftier end of the mainland smoky spectrum, and I enjoyed it a great deal. I'd equate it to something like Laphroaig 18 year in quality (although the profile is totally different) and the price points are similar. "Very Good" : 86/100 (4 stars)

I was looking through my whisky collection for something with a healthy age statement to carry with me to my father’s house a couple of weeks ago. He likes it when I bring something new that he can be the first to pull the cork on. I bought this bottle a few months back from the U.K. and had been very interested in opening it. So, here ya go dad- pop a freshie! The BenRiach Temporis is a peated offering that boasts an in-house blend of 21 year old whisky that’s from 4 different sources: virgin oak, ex-bourbon, Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks. This could be very good or a muddled mess- this should showcase the distillery master blender’s skill set. It’s bottled at 46% and set me back $153. It’s caramel gold and very oily in the tasting glass. Sparse legs and tiny drops form and get left behind after a quick spin. The nose opens with earthy peat, toffee chews and sherry. Some charred oak and malty fruits mingle quite nicely after you give it some appropriate time and a little agitation in the glass. There’s no hints of alcohol or heat. The palate ushers in stewed fruits: both of the tropical and orchard variety. It leans more towards apples and pears until after the midpoint, at which it gets more tropical. Once the fruitiness gives way the peat and earthy mushroom notes creep in alongside the light oak and vanilla. The mouthfeel is very impressive- the liquid actually has a very soothing, aged feel. It’s a nice balance between watery and medium-oily. Creamy is the word I’m looking for here. The flavors do turn a bit muddled heading into the medium-length finish. The ABV leaves a nice warming effect, with sherry and toffee rounding out the final oak notes. Overall, it’s a wonderful whisky. There’s a fine line where I’m not sure if the flavors are expertly blended to not make anything stand out, or if it’s just the muddled effect. I doubt any of the juice used is from first-fill casks (other than the virgin oak, obviously), but that keeps any single notes from shining and also allows the older whisky characteristics to play a predominant role. I really think a finishing cask would’ve masked the good and the bad, so cheers to BenRiach for not going that route. But, there’s something making me wish there was a cask that took the leading role here- I don’t know why, because I did enjoy this bottle. Fun note: after opening this for my dad he ended up siphoning off 2/3 of the bottle into a couple of flasks to keep in his golf bag- so, after my initial drams and 1-2 samples this bottle was dispatched in a matter of days. If that doesn’t speak volumes, nothing does. 4-4.25 stars because the price point is leaking onto the higher end. Cheers.

Caramel, leather, light but distinct smoke on the nose (4/5) Back of throat hit, toasted oats, almonds, and granola (4/5) Radiating warm feel (4/5)