This bottle #2 for our July BenRiach double tasting.
Distilled in July 7th 1997
Bottled in 2022
Bottle 69/176
Cask Strength 56.7% ABV
Exclusively selected and bottled for Alberta
Bourbon barrel cask
Notes from Kensington Wine market website.
Nose: decadent, creamy, and fruity with subtle spice; creamed honey, clotted cream, and creme brule; orange pith, dried apricot, and honey dew melon; nutty and toasty with almond brittle.
Palate: creamy, sweet, and fruity with juicy malt; a base of buttery toasted oak with decadent spices; more clotted cream, creme brule, and creamed honey; the fruits start in the citrus/orchard range, but evolve into more tropical ones like green mango and pineapple; Earl Grey Tea icecream and toasted marshmallows to round things out; sliced ginger and cinnamon hearts.
Finish: warming, spicy, and toasty, the finish is long, coating the palate with fading fruits and sweet creamy treats.
Certainly this bottling is a rarity and once one of our members wins the remaining at our annual bottle auction it is likely to be gone forever. One of only 176 bottles made from this single cask, amazing find and a treat for the whisky lover!
Both tasters this month are from the vault of our very own Tamara Mauer! Thank you very much for coming through for this month, no doubt everyone will benefit from your generosity and perfectly normal and healthy addiction to hoarding whisky! No doubt we are in for a treat with this BenRiach double taster.
BenRiach 20 year old
43% ABV
700ml bottle
Notes from Whisky Base:
Nose Balanced nose with apple Helene and berries with spicy vanilla. You think of smoke, but very far away. Then some herbs in the soup. This is how fun the nose is.
Taste Less happens here than the nose promises. Too bad. But still very balanced sweetness with woody spices and some candied caramel. OK, there are also small oranges with vanilla sticks. But everything looks very harmonious. After work malts.
Finish Medium to long but everything in the bitter direction. Not uncomfortable, however. With peppery spices and still sweet, he says goodbye with his head held high. Good craft!
Wow! Another great BenRiach expression, they never disappoint!
BenRiach
Distillery has unveiled Batch 15 in its popular series of single cask
bottling’s. The distillery is known for its experimental nature and this latest
batch of single cask whiskies demonstrates this, once again offering whisky
connoisseurs a multi-faceted range of casks in both unpeated and Highland
peated styles. Each bottle is filled exclusively from one of these individual
casks.
As
with all of the BenRiach single cask releases they are individually
hand-numbered, non chill filtered, natural colour and presented in a gift tube,
each single cask is truly unique.
BenRiach 2006 Single Cask
Cask No. 2406
Cask Type: Port Pipe
Bottle No. 327 of 809
Cask Strength 58.7 % ABV
Colour: darker gold, almost a bronze
Nose: Toffee, butterscotch, sweet heat, cherries, dried
figs, you can really smell the strength of the alcohol, but it is rounded out
nicely by the sweetness and warmth of fruit
Taste: figs, raisins, bit of liquorice, sweet warmth
of some fresh baking, a little touch of spice, berries, the alcohol dissipates quickly
and does not over-power the palate
This dram invokes a sense of déjà vu and transports me back
to the onset of a brisk Ontario winter right around the Christmas
holidays. My Grandmother makes a Christmas pudding with caramel sauce, which
invokes the smell an aroma that I get from this dram. The sweetness, the fruit, the caramel sauce,
all that’s missing is some vanilla ice cream, but hey why not drizzle a bit of
this BenRiach Single Cask onto a fresh scoop? The Port Pipe Cask is a fantastic finish on
some top notch juice in this expression.
Highly recommend should you come across a bottle. Not available in
Ontario via the LCBO but it can be found out of province.
BenRiach 2006 Single Cask
Cask No. 1855
Cask Type: Sauternes Barrique
Bottle No. 184 of 277
Cask Strength 56.5% ABV
Colour: Bright summer gold, bit more of a lighter red hue vs
the Port Pipe expression
Nose: hint of lemon, subtle honey, toast, freshness,
toffee, apple, smells almost dry like a cider
Taste: green apple slices, hazelnut, drizzle of
Billie Bee honey on morning toast, dry sweet wine from the Sauternes Cask
finish, overall brightness
Finish: smooth light dry finish, much more delicate
that the Cask Strength would suggest, fresh cut green apples, touch of honey
sweetness
This dram is completely different from the Part Pipe
finish. The Sauternes Cask is a much
smaller finishing vessel and it imparts the dry sweetness that the Sauternes
region wine is known for. This one is more fresh and uplifting and I would be
right at home drinking this one on a warm summer evening. I keep coming back to
the dry finish of a glass of cider, however one with a much warmer finish as
dictated by the Cask Strength finish. It’s hard to believe that these 2
BenRiach’s are the same distillate as they impart completely different flavours
and finishes based on the Cask treatment.
Once again this was not available at the LCBO and had to be sourced out
of province. Should you come across one I’d say investigate an purchase should
budgets allow.
Overall fantastic work with these expressions
BenRiach.
