Kategoriarkiv: Benromach

Benromach, Speyside

Benromach Contrasts: Organic 2013/2022

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ABV: 46 %
Origin: Speyside
Type: Single Malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 2/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is sweet and oaky. At first there’s a mild vanilla and a toasted oakiness with a piney side note. It’s young and spirity and there’s a minty candy cane layer floating around as well. There’s a sour note in the back. It’s not especially fruity but there’s a hint of green apples within the sour notes. It feels a bit too simple and lacks complexity. This is a decent nose, but it feels a bit overoaked.

Mouth: It starts out with a nice peppery spicyness from the ABV. When it settles a sweet and oaky center part is revealed. There’s a hint of toffee and coconut. It’s very sour in the back and the oakiness really contributes to the spicyness. It feels a bit astingent from here on out. The piney note persists and there’s a bitterness developing in the back After a few seconds.

Finish: The peppery spicyness slowly spreads out. When it settles there’s a mix of toast, oak, banana and lemon. As the finish progresses the flavours merge and creates a nice tropical fruitiness and a dry oakiness. The bitterness in the back is still there and it mixes with the lemon note and becomes zesty. It still feels astringent and the late finish is a dry woodshop oakiness. This is a good whisky, but it’s way to unbalanced and oaky.

Additional information
This is the first certified organic whisky since 2006. It was aged in virgin oak casks. It’s unchillfiltered and has natural colour.

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Benromach, Speyside

Benromach Organic Special Edition

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ABV: 43 %
Origin: Speyside
Type: Single malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 1
Impression: 3/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is young and sweet. At first there’s a mix of honey, oak and kitchen spices. A young spirity note is initially very protruding, but then it moves back and settles behind the main flavours. After a few seconds a citrus fruitiness moves forward and it sort of morphs into oranges and clementines. There’s a pine note sitting in the back, which doesn’t help. The whole very much reflects the pretences of this whisky very well.

Mouth: It starts out a bit bitter with the wood notes, both oak and pine, in front of everything. After a few seconds a savory, meaty note starts to emerge from behind, and it does so together with black liquorice and an overripe fruitiness. The honey is still in there and a vanilla note sits behind everything else. The bright citrus notes are not present at first, but a thin lemon note do come through after a while.

Finish: The oakiness fills the entire palate and even though the savory note and the honey sits in the center they are soon overshadowed by an extremely fresh oakiness. It’s basically planed, new oak. There’s a young green note coming through which isn’t all that pleasant and the young spirity note is still in there. The thin citrus note remains just that and the oranges arrive once again in the late finish. It becomes astringent over time. This is young and fresh, and it has an array of nice and not so nice flavours. It’s interesting for what it is.

Additional information
This release is a certified organic whisky aged in virgin american oak casks for approximately 6 years. It’s unchillfiltered and has natural colour.

Benromach, Speyside

Benromach 10 YO

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ABV: 43 %
Origin: Speyside
Type: Single malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 1
Impression: 4/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is dark fruits and mild peat. At first there’s a warm campfire smokiness together with raisins, red berries and vanilla cream. The oakiness is detectable from the start and it sits nicely in the sweet center core together with black liquorice. The sherry notes increase in intensity with time in the glass and after a minute or two the different elements feel very balanced. There’s a Bassett’s allsorts kind of sweet, fruity and liquorice candy-like quality to it.

Mouth: It starts out with a herbaceous peatiness. It’s quite savory and it’s got a nice texture to it, even though it’s very mild. There’s soot and dark fruits in the center. After a second or two some sour red berries come through as well as a fresh, but slightly bitter oakiness. There’s black coffee and a dusty layer sitting on top of the oak. There is a sweeter side to it with some vanilla, honey and coconut, but it’s not as sweet nor as balanced as on the nose.

Finish: A quick spicyness pass by and then it immidiately moves back towards the black coffee bitterness and the darker sherry notes. There’s still a savory note in there. The peat has moved out towards the edges and it’s still quite herbaceous, but the campfire smoke has returned. After a while a tropical fruitiness start to emerge in the middle of it all and it also brings a lemon sourness with it. It takes a while for the oakiness to show up, but when it does, it stays for a long finish together with the peat and the fruitiness. This is a great whisky with a lot of possibility for exploration. It could have been fantastic with a higher ABV presentation.

Additional information
This 10 YO is aged in a mix of 80 % ex-bourbon barrels and 20 % ex-Oloroso sherry casks for 9 years and then married together in first fill ex-Oloroso sherry casks. The malt has a ppm value of 10-12.

Benromach, Speyside

Benromach Peat Smoke 2004

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ABV: 46 %
Origin: Speyside
Type: Single malt
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 1
Impression: 3/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is bright and fresh. At first there’s a big bowl of lemons next to a burning woodfire. The character is lively and young and in this case, that’s a good thing. There’s vanilla and cream and, besides the lemons, a hint of green apples. The base is earthy with a base of dry soil. This isn’t very complex or interesting, but it is a very nice nose.

Mouth: At first there’s a dry earthy peatiness and a sweet honey baseline. It is a bit ”cardboardy” behind everything and it it still is young and lively. When the first impact settles the warm campfire peatiness returns together with the green apples and lemons. The vanilla and the cream notes can be found somewhere in the back, but it takes a few seconds before they arrive.

Finish: A peppermint cloud slowly passes by, but it soon turns into a young spirity note before the dry earthy peatiness takes over once again. The fruitiness is still in there with mainly lemons. The flavour profile is very consistant from nose to finish. The oakiness do come through but it’s not especially interesting. This is a very stringent whisky and that makes it a bit uneventful. A high ppm level doesn’t automatically make it interesting. It’s a nice enough experience overall.

Additional information
This peated release from Benromach was distilled in 2004 and aged in refill american hogsheads for an undisclosed amount of time. The malt has a ppm value of 53.