Benriach The Smoky Ten

Smooth and Islayish

Edit: Just realized I had this on the wrong entry. New entry to reflect this was a tasting of the Smoky Ten, not the Original Ten Whiskey night tasting with friends. Very small sample. Tasted blind. I actually guessed correctly that this was Benriach Smoky 10, because the peat didn't come across like an Islay and there seems to be only a handful of non-Islay peated scotches that you can find locally. (I didn't do so well at guessing the others I tasted that night). It's been a while since I had the Curiositas, and I don't remember loving it. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and was in fact my favorite of the night. I liked the fruit and peat. I'm guessing the fruity sweetness is coming from the rum casks. I could see buying this one at the right price.

I really like the sweetness from the cask finishing

Rating: 16/23 N: This needs a few minutes to open up. After it does, peaty smoke comes out along with a little bit of slightly salted roast pork loin. But there's some nice fruit as well. I get something red like cherry but less opinionated. Then there is a little tangerine moving into orange. There's a light vegetal character coming out of the peat that fits quite nicely. A little herbal as well, but more vegetal. Some black pepper with he pork loin. It's nicely balanced and avoids smelling youthful. There's not much interesting happening here, but it's appealing. P: The smoke hits first, along with the peat. The peat is nice. It brings in the herbal and mild vegetal character, adding dimension. There's some sweetness from the malt hanging out underneath, but the fruit also slips in, adding some nice character. A hint of cherry mixes with fairly prominent tangerine and a bit of orange. I get a little oiliness as well, which pairs with a sort of light caramel flavor coming out of the malt (like caramel cooked to 330F - it has some of that richness, but it's not that bold). On the spice side, I get cinnamon coming out of the wood, but it's not a ton. There's some nice chocolate flavor as well. Perhaps a touch of black pepper. More like black pepper flavor without the heat. Maybe there's some roast pork here, but it's hard to detect. Yeah, there's a bit and it's lightly salty. I do get a bit of youth out of this, but it isn't bad. There's nice complexity and balance. F: Smoky herbal vegetal funk wit a bit of roast pork with black pepper. Some lingering oiliness. Faint tangerine, sort of like the pith was left behind. - Conclusion - This is really nice. There's a lot happening and it all fits together nicely. This crushes Old Pulteney 12 (14/23). This can't be below a 16. It's not amazing, but it's very good. Comparing this with Amrut Peated (17/23) is tough. The Amrut is oddly more earthy with some jalapeño to it. There's a lot of depth to the Amrut that I don't really remember - I think this is affecting my usual perception of it. Is this as good? Better? Worse? Well, switching back to this, I'm finding that it tastes more youthful and muddled. The flavor here covers a broader part of the spectrum, but I'm inclined to place the Amrut ahead of this. I normally think of the Amrut as a low 17, so that probably seals the deal, placing this in the 16 bucket.