Benriach The Twenty One

Smooth approach that opens up with a decent balance of fruit and peat. Blossoming at The Mid and lingering on the back end with good complexity throughout.

I have not posted tastes as frequently as I used to because I have so many open bottles that I have already tasted here and therefor I am keeping it a bid slower while I try to empty them bid by bid. (I have ordered a bunch of new samples already though but those are for later months). But today is a special day which made me open this bottle of one of my favorite distilleries. Occasion is that today we started making it official that we have our second child on the way which is due in September. A worthy opportunity to open something special. So this whisky here is very new and counting back, it is a millennial whisky too. It is a partly peated whisky sourced from a variety of virgin, ex and first full bourbon, sherry and Bordeaux red wine casks bottled 46% ABV. I have loved most of the 15+ years old BenRiach whiskies I had in the past and all the features of this one sound amazing already. Nose: very shy at first with a very mild peat note along a mixed fruit salad and dark berry aromas. A few more exotic fruits start to appear in there as well with mainly mango and some peaches. More fresh than ripe. Then some orange jam on top of curd with dusted cinnamon followed by white chocolate and warm maple syrup. At all times there is a very nice subtle peat enforcing all the aromas. Becomes increasingly sweeter. Palate: fresh oak wood, a bid of pine tree resin, spicy vanilla, dark bread crust of Italian ciabatta, plum jam, then dark honey but really not overly sweet at all and more on the dry spectrum for sure. Finish: light peat and some rough spices (nutmeg, bay leaves), not much of the fruits and sweetness left here but a nice constellation of flavors. It is indeed a very tasty whisky and it feels really well balanced especially with that subtle peat factoring in. But I must say I am a bid surprised how shy it is both on the nose and the palate. I account that to the neck pour for now but even though it has quite a proper alcoholic chili burn I think 46% really isn’t doing it justice. 50% would probably have pushed it to the rocky peak but like this (for now) it actually really feels a bid elusive. I hope this will settle and fall more in place with some oxidation. For now it doesn’t feel like 21 years really. It also feels like not completely worth the money tbh. I still like it but I’m counting on improvement. I will revisit it and adjust the rating accordingly.