Benriach The Smoky Twelve

Scent of sweet creamy smoke and pear tart. Taste smoky butterscotch, rock candy. The sweetness lingers with baking spice finish.

Excellent balanced smokiness, the complexity doesn’t meld perfectly

Fruity with a hint of smoke. Good spice on the finish.

Neck pour. Sweet, vanilla, caramel, syrupy fruit, light peat smoke, shorter finish. Tasty. Dry glass gives a better impression than the initial taste of the whiskey itself with dried apricots, raisin, plums, a hint of peat and baking spices.

A deep copper/burnished color. An abundance of peat aromas lilting towards smoke. The sherry, marsala, and ex-bourbon barrels add plenty of sweet vanilla to the nose, but also orange sherbet, honey cookies, honey biscuits, peach, and tangerine. Thick, oily, and creamy on the palate with rich grape spirit notes -- Turkish figs, sultanas, lemon custard, and sugar. There's plenty of sweetness, but the peat permeates the whiskey from start to finish keeping things from becoming too cloying or syrupy. There's more vanilla bean and orange sherbet on the finish with a buoy of dry barrel spice and black pepper. The influence of each cask is evident throughout the whiskey providing great depth and complexity. Really, a master class in blending.