Benriach The Twelve

The combination of sherry, bourbon and port casks on The Twelve sounds very promising and it doesn’t disappoint. The nose is poached pears and baked apple. In the mouth it’s unusually oily for a 46% whisky, with flavors of spicy pecan pie and stewed fruit. The finish is long on oak spice and butterscotch. My favorite of the four youngest members of the revamped Benriach range.

(WoodWinters BenRiach Online Zoom tasting, 4th November 2020) Nose: Orange, dark chocolate, sweet dark fruits, berries Palate: Cherries, chocolate, plum/raisins/sultanas, cooked apples. Sweet & fruity. Finish: Sweet coffee, chocolate/cocoa, raisins, Christmas spices Uses a range of full maturation in bourbon, port and PX/Oloroso sherry casks. Weighted towards the PX casks as evidenced by the chocolate, cherry and dried fruit notes. It has a lovely, chewy and coating mouthfeel. A little numbing, but very pleasant to sip. It's not a session whisky as such, but I could definitely drink a good few of these of an evening! Possibly my favourite of the tasting (although I can't decide between this and the CS Batch 1). It is a very well integrated dram, but the depth of the PX gives it a great chocolate cherry flavour that is a bit of a winter warmer. I was impressed at the tasting how easy it was to recognise a house style at Benriach. All of the core range and the CS are orchard fruit forward, with a well integrated vanilla.

Benriach The Twelve N: light raisins and chocolate. Sweet plums and oranges. Cinnamon, ginger and figs. There’s a lot of bright, sweet citrus notes jumping out. P: vanilla, raisins, orange peel, dark chocolate and caramel. Touch of tobacco, cherries, green apples. F: spicy candied ginger, vanilla, green apples and cinnamon. Dark chocolate bitterness jumps out towards the back. 88 Surprisingly good and pretty awesome that it’s ex-bourbon, sherry and port. The blend is fantastic. I wish it had a little more body but it’s good.