My wife and I have enjoyed doing whiskey tasting kits in the past (see A Johnnie Walker vertical), it's like getting a flight at home. So when I found one from Benriach, a Scotch distillery in Speyside, that includes two 'smoky' drams we hadn't had before, I couldn't resist. That was probably like a year and a half ago, around the last time we did one of these, and soon afterward I learned my wife was pregnant again. It got stashed in the cupboard and then forgotten about for a while. Determined to finally do it I scheduled a night last week, writing it on the calendar and everything. We don't ever really get out on dates and this kind of thing is about the closest we get, and that made it a little more fun.
Before we get started, some background on Benriach. The distillery is located in Speyside (see Scotch whisky regions), near the town of Elgin. It's closer to the coast than to Dufftown, to me the center of the region. Benriach goes back to 1898 and was founded by frequent whisky entrepreneur John Duff, there's a good Scottish name. Duff also founded nearby Longmorn distillery a few years prior and the two were connected by a private railway. Unfortunately Benriach shuttered only two years later, in 1900, with an industry downturn. It didn't make spirit again until 1965, though the floor malting side of the business continued. Distilling resumed in 1965 after acquisition by Glenlivet. In 1972 Benriach started playing with peated malt, an oddity in Speyside. They were acquired again by Seagrams in 1985, who doubled their production capacity by adding two more stills. Around 2000 there was fear of another long-term shutdown and a new venture, called Benriach Distillery Company Ltd, was created to buy the distillery, which it did in 2004. It's taken off since, aided by a combination of a history with both unpeated and peat malt and an unusual mixture of casks from previous decades. This new group bought two more distilleries, Glendronach (see 15 year Revival) and Glenglassaugh (see Revival) in 2013. Clearly they wanted to revive things. In 2016 all three were sold to American company Brown-Forman, makers of Jack Daniel's, Old Forester and Woodford Reserve. Long story short the distillery has existed for 125 years but only distilled for half that, and they've only been interesting the last twenty years or so.
After joining Brown-Forman Benriach got a new master distiller in 2017. In 2020 they launched a brand redesign and a new core range of single malts. This includes 'The Original Ten,' harking back to (but not recreating) the distillery's first single malt in the 1970s, 'The Smoky Ten,' 'The Twelve' and 'The Smoky Twelve.' These are the four that come in my sampler. It's fun this is all so new. They also have, in similar naming convention, unpeated 16, 21, and 25 year old expressions as well as some special releases. And there's probably quite a few of their old releases floating around too.
Let's dig into The Tasting Collection. Benriach makes three different distillates, one that's unpeated and classic Speyside, one that's peated (~45 ppm) using Highland or woodland peat that's supposedly distinct from Islay, and one that's triple distilled and done in limited amounts. The four expressions here only come from the unpeated and peated spirits. All four were matured in three cask types, their variety of casks is a big part of their identity and that's clear with this kit. From the language used, it seems each cask held spirit for at least the ten/twelve year minimum and then these distinct single-cask whiskies were 'married' (mixed) together to create the final products. This is not the same process as 'finishing,' where a whiskey is more or less fully mature in one cask before spending a short amount of time in a fresh and different style that imparts new flavors. I'm assuming for each of these most of the whiskey came from the cask type listed first, it's almost a certainty that it's not equal parts. Here are my thoughts and notes on what we tried.
Distillate - Unpeated only
Casks - Bourbon, sherry and virgin oak
ABV - 43% (86 proof)
Price for 750ml - $55-60
Notes - Malt forward, what I like to call 'Scotch-y,' bit of fruit, seems boring at first but gets better and more complex as you go
Distillates - Peated and unpeated
Casks - Bourbon, rum and virgin oak
ABV - 46% (92 proof)
Price for 750ml - $60-65
Notes - Smokier than expected, good depth of flavor, subtle and good, the best
Distillate - Unpeated only
Casks - Sherry, bourbon and port
ABV - 46% (92 proof)
Price for 750ml - $60-65
Notes - Darkest, clearly mostly sherry casks, still don't like lingering port on the taste buds, 'hot mess express' as my wife called it, least favorite
Distillates - Peated and unpeated
Casks - Bourbon, sherry and marsala (Sicily)
ABV - 46% (92 proof)
Price for $750ml - $65-70
Notes - It's certainly unusual, something different here, but not convinced the cask flavors mesh all that well
There was a clear and easy winner. Surprisingly we liked both the 10s and disliked both the 12s, which was not the way we expected this to go. With the 12s they're clearly trying to go for unique, and it's understandable considering their stock and the desire to create something unlike everything else out there, but I don't think either worked. They kind of reminded me of Rabbit Hole in Louisville, fwiw, and just had too much going on. The 10s, on the other hand, are delicious and probably aided by the third cask type being virgin oak. The Original Ten is comparable to a lot of other Bourbon-oak 10 year single malts (say Glenlivet or Glenmorangie) and I do think it's a little better too, but it's also more expensive. The Smoky Ten was easily the best of the four and the only one I'd consider purchasing. It was smokier than anticipated and had a really solid flavor profile. At one point I thought I didn't like whiskey matured in rum barrels but have since found a couple great ones, like this. The value question as always is a tough one but in the single malt Scotch market this is a good buy for ~$60. That's still more expensive than I expect to find the Ardbeg/Laphroaig 10 years, however, so in the end it all comes down to preference.
This was fun. Hopefully we can find more of these. Cheers!
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