Jan-Case
BenRiach 16 Year
Single Malt — Speyside, Scotland
Reviewed
August 25, 2020 (edited September 7, 2020)
I am a small fanboy of BenRiach. I like them for their incredible range and a lot of courage with some interesting exotic cask flavors to their really great traditional Speyside character. There were a few expressions that I didn’t like too much but the most of what I had was really good.
That is why I had the 16y on my wishlist for some time. I had a dram of it before but after that I found out that it isn’t in production anymore. But then some day when I was browsing through the shelves of my favorite local whisky shop I encountered a surprise.
In that store (because of alphabetical order) BenRiach is located at the very bottom of one of the B-shelves. I knew all BenRiach bottles they had there but suddenly there was a hole where a week before the last Temporis bottle was standing. I kneeled down to see if there was a bottle to be put to the front again (minor OCD ;) ) and there it was: a really dusty white tube with a bright blue printed “16” on the front. I couldn’t believe it - all this time there was still a bottle hidden behind the front row of other expressions. And it still had the original price of 54€ (around 64$) too where online it goes for at least 50% more if you can even find it.
This bottle is a 2015 batch and must be one of the last ones before they removed it from the lineup. So here we go.
Nose: I poured this neat into a Norlan glass and after just a few minutes the whole room is filled with that very familiar BenRiach aroma. Dried fruit, oranges, toffee, baked apple, raw grainy cereals, intense baking spices, a bid like fresh pale beer, sour prickly candy, generally more on the sweet side, rich with a nice complexity.
Palate: slightly sweet, fruity, lightly spicy, nutshells, dried fruit cooked in those spices with orange oil, charred wood, fruity candy drops
Finish: oaky, a good bunch of herbal essential oils, slightly acidic like the mentioned orange oil, less fruity and more spices with rich cask-wood aromas, it ends with a delightful chili burn with wood and spices.
(Whatever you do - don’t add water. It really doesn’t do it any good but dilutes it unnecessarily and spreads the nicely put together aromas apart. Reduces all of what you discovered earlier.)
A very nice and enjoyable whisky. Not too complicated but with a some nice contrasting variety between smell and taste that in combination are just great. I like it.
54.0
EUR
per
Bottle
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@jonwilkinson7309 It is important though that you get the new version - they really are very different. You can easily distinguish them from each other by looking at the tube print or bottle-label: the old version is written as weird as it tastes: CUrIOSTaS with the letter “r” and “a” being small while all others are capitalized. Also all the letter have a golden outline and the background is black. So don’t get this one. The new version instead has all capitals, no outlines and a blueish-grey background. And the most important thing: it says “... finished in rum casks.” The is one of big new improvements. While the old one distillery a really bad, the new one is a lot better.
@Benji-Robert. Consider it done! Review to follow
@Jan-Case Thanks for the tip! The Curiositas is an easy find. I'll see if I can also hunt down the 15.
@jonwilkinson7309 curiositas is the one you want to try, trust us
Treasure find! I've seen prices 3-4 times of what you paid for it. Interested to know how it compares to the new 16-year old.
@Scott_E it did meet my expectations. When looking back I even like it better than the 21y. For me personally especially when it comes to Speyside whisky I like spicy and less sweet flavors a lot more. I also don’t like that honey characters and florals of a lot of the other Speysiders and Highlanders - and this one here has something else to offer that hits the sweet spot for me.
A wonderful treasure hunt!
@jonwilkinson7309 my absolute favorite (and my all-together top-whisky even though it is cheap) is the new Curiositas 10y. It has to be the new one because it got a recipe overhaul that changed it dramatically to the better. Also the 15y Tawny Port is my favorite “sherried” whisky. The Authenticus und Septendecin I only had samples from but they were fantastic too. The 21y underwhelmed me bid strangely. But that was just a single pour without a lot of time for it.
Very cool find. Nothing like find that lost toy. Haven’t had much BenRiach but will have to remedy that. Were you hoping for more from the 16 or did it meet your expectations?
Nice find! Benriach is a distillery I need to explore more. What are your favorites?