Benromach 15 Year

Nose: Sweet, marmelade, hint of saltiness, creme brulee Taste: raisins, hint of smoke, smooth, hint of bitterness Taste: soft sweetness, some spices appearing, medium length

Rating: 13/23 N: Kind of light and possibly watery. Light sherry fruitiness. There's an underlying richness, but the fullness just isn't there. Cherry, apple, a little nut oil, a squeeze of lemon, a bit of mellow, dry smoke, and a little odd mustiness. It could be a pretty good nose if it were just fuller. A little bit of questionable meatiness with rock salt and faint pepper. Still, the fruitiness is nice. P: This is more woody, than I'd expected, with a bold sherry woodiness that reminds me of my bottle of North British 28 (1991) by Signatory. It seems a bit over-oaked, but there are some nice spices (clove, black pepper, ginger) with bitter oaky nuances and occasional, faint suggestions of vanilla adding interest. A bit of musty spice. There is some malty sweetness in here, along with some flint, but there's also just kind of a flat woodiness and something slightly sour in an off way. At times, I wonder whether that dry woodiness might actually just be smoke. I guess at least a bit of it is smoke, but I think it's mostly wood. It just hit me that a fair amount of that funkiness I've been trying to nail down is from a PX cask. It isn't overwhelming at all, but it doesn't balance all that well with the dry smoke. F: Remnants of the sherry, but only as part of the sweetness comes out. A. bold, somewhat tannic wood layer sits there. - Conclusion - The North British (17/23) is decidedly better. It's richer and fuller with less weirdness. This is a bit maltier, but it's more muddled and less interesting. I find this disappointing, but Dalmore 12 (15/23) is also better than this. The Dalmore is just a clean balance of malted barley with sherry and bourbon barrels. This is funkier, but it's out of whack, with weird combinations of flavors that don't really balance and a bitter layer that's hard to get past. With the Dalmore being a 15, I think that this is in the 12 to 14 range. That PX flavor is increasingly bothering me. It pains me to say this, but the clean flavor and balance of Monkey Shoulder (14/23) are a relief to taste beside this, though the youthfulness and ethanol do show with the Monkey Shoulder. This isn't too far off from the Monkey Shoulder, but I think I'd put the Monkey Shoulder a little ahead of this. I'm also inclined to give the nod to Benromach 10 over this. Although I like the maturity here, there are just enough problems that the more youthful but less flawed Benromach 10 is a little bit more appealing. I'm going with a 13 here. Benromach unfortunately seems to be a story of throwing everything in and hoping it turns out. They really need to work on targeting specific flavors and balancing. Thank you @ctbeck11 for letting me try this one. It's not to my liking, so you probably saved me from buying a bottle.

Good offering!