BenRiach - 17-19 July 2009 - 7pm GMT

[Matt2]

Welcome to the BenRiach Live Forum Tasting.

The Whiskies

• BenRiach Curiositas
• BenRiach Authenticus
• BenRiach 16 Years Old
• BenRiach 21 Years Old
• BenRiach 25 Years Old
• BenRiach 30 Years Old
• And any other BenRiachs you may have...

Date and Time

• Friday 17th July 7:00pm GMT - Sunday 19th July

Handy Links

• Live Tasting Page
• BenRiach Tastings from Whisky Magazine
• BenRiach Official Website

Start time - 7:00pm GMT

About...
For those of you who do not know what these are about, they run for generally 12+ hours and we all sit down (at various times) to taste a range of whiskies and share our notes and comments on the forum. Have a look in the Live Tasting forum for past events.

They are a great way to meet people on the forum, chat about your experiences and learn something new about the whiskies you have, and we all end up having a good time.

Please feel free to join in and post any comments or tasting notes you have. Tasting notes can be added using the Tasting Note tab on the postings page. (Note, the Age field on the tasting must be a number such as 7,9,10,18)

We look forward to seeing you on Friday evening...

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[Ganga]

Saturday afternoon and no one's here. Hm. I've got some errands to run after spending all morning assembling the kids birthday present (it's 101 outside). So I think I'll come back with some notes later tonight.

[Caledonia]

I am new to this but thought I'd take part in the benriach tasting, I was fortunate enough to be given a 2nd tour around the distillery since reopening and if you have witnessed the magic at Benriach you will be aware about how great and hopsitible the guys are up there.

Anyway to the tasting and the bottles at hand , Main bottle is Benriach 1994 Virgin Oak and Benriach 1966 Signatory Vintage Rare Reserve 43.9% (tiny sample remaining but shall do what i can)

Going to get organised and will give full notes in due to couse

[Ras Mazunga]

Benriach 1994 Cask #805 11yo 46% an ob for for Van Wees

n: inner tubes, later hints of mushrooms and some sort of cheese. some peat too. much later some herbs like thyme.
t: lemonade with inner tubes.
f: not a real finish just a nice tingle on the tongue.
c: fix the tyre of your bicycle and smell your hands, what you smell is Benrich 1994. nice drinking whisky, better than my notes suggest I think.

[Ras Mazunga]

Benriach 1994 cask #4022 14yo 54% New Wood Oak Barrel
n: whoohoo! thats new oak for sure. full on creme brulee, toffees, vanilla, butterscotch, you name it. suddenly my nose picks up tea, lots of tea. old books, moisdty cardboard, black tea dominates, wood takes over once in a while
t: strong black tea, grass, nice round mouthfeel
f: middle long, (red) fruit juice like
c: great whisky, never tasted whisky that reminds me so much of tea.

[Ras Mazunga]

Birnie Moss 4 yo intensely peated speyside 48%
n: peat, fermenting grass, pine trees, lemon, fruits: maybe pear
t: peat, sweets, fruits, melon, metallic, tea
f: peat, peppery, metallic, tea
c: at first it seems only peat but ther is more. the alcohol is softer than I expected at 4 yo.

[Ras Mazunga]

Many thanks to Bachess for giving me these samples.

[Ras Mazunga]

Benrich 1988 cask #4020 19yo 53.6% batch 5 Virgin American Oak Barrel
n: very beatifull woodtones, line seed oil, beeswax, candles, oak, apples show up
t: peat, apples, tea,
f: oak and menthol.
c: a pleasure to drink this one


Sample courtesy of Emalt.

[pkt77242]

Nice notes Ras, the virgin oak/new oak whiskies sound great.

Sean

[Ganga]

Birnie Moss 4 yo intensely peated speyside 48%
n: peat, fermenting grass, pine trees, lemon, fruits: maybe pear
t: peat, sweets, fruits, melon, metallic, tea
f: peat, peppery, metallic, tea
c: at first it seems only peat but ther is more. the alcohol is softer than I expected at 4 yo.

Had the Birnie last night with the LA Scotch Club. Pine trees did get mentioned. I think we ended up with more of a burning pine tar. Loads of burning peat but not the oily nature of the Islays. Also some citrus.

[pkt77242]

Benriach 10 Curiositas
Brand : BenRiach Expression : -
Nose : Farmyardy, wet hay, grass, wheat, and animals. Soft smoke (like when you burn leaves or pine needles). Melon and citrus Palate : Soft peat, leaf smoke, and some citrus, and cantalope. Finish : Wet hay, slight flintyness and some smoke Comment : A nice malt that has gotten better the lower the bottle gets. Colour : - Score : 0
Age : 10 Years Old Vintage : 0 ABV : 4/% Bottler : -	Type : Single Malt Region : - Water : none Ice : None Glass : - Notes : -
More tasting notes by None Please do not reproduce or copy this tasting note without permission.

Sean

[Ganga]

Ok, this is the Benriach OB 10 standard offering from about 10 years ago.

Nose: unhusked barley, deft/acetone/glue, dried apples, very dry herbs
Palate: cocoa powder, chocolate muffins, lemon rinds, acetone
Finish: drying, dried lemon rinds

Interesting in that I never really cared for this when I first started. I like it somewhat better but it isn't something I wish to stock on any kind of routine basis.

[pkt77242]

Ok, this is the Benriach OB 10 standard offering from about 10 years ago.

Nose: unhusked barley, deft/acetone/glue, dried apples, very dry herbs
Palate: cocoa powder, chocolate muffins, lemon rinds, acetone
Finish: drying, dried lemon rinds

Interesting in that I never really cared for this when I first started. I like it somewhat better but it isn't something I wish to stock on any kind of routine basis.

Ganga, besides the acetone nose/taste it sounds pretty good.

Sean

[Ganga]

Moving along to the Benriach 15 Dark Rum Finish (purple label).

Nose: banana bread, nutmeg and ginger, vegetable oil, pencil shavings
Palate: gingerbread, overripe bananas, cinnamon, wheat chaff
Finish: medium with lots of bread and barley notes

This one is getting to be one I really enjoy. May have to consider a bottle for storage.

[Ganga]

Sean, you'd be surprised. It's the sweetness of the acetone that's coming through and in an enjoyable manner.

[pkt77242]

Moving along to the Benriach 15 Dark Rum Finish (purple label).

Nose: banana bread, nutmeg and ginger, vegetable oil, pencil shavings
Palate: gingerbread, overripe bananas, cinnamon, wheat chaff
Finish: medium with lots of bread and barley notes

This one is getting to be one I really enjoy. May have to consider a bottle for storage.

Ganga, when you first opened thsi bottle was it very rummy? I had it at a Benriach tasting last weekend and it seemed more like rum than whisky.

Sean

[borgom]

BenRiach Authenticus 21
Brand : BenRiach Expression : Authenticus 21
Nose : Very fresh and coastal. Initially there is iodine, salt, old leather and damp old wood. A little time reveals smaller portions of bitter chocolate, bitter oranges, raisins and honey. I also detect hints of tar, double smoked ham and marijuana! Suddenly Vicks VapoRub comes to mind too. Palate : A lovely bitter sweet balance leaning on the bitter side. It's texture is fresh and medium light yet satisfying. Salt, bitter chocolate and hints of marijuana are present. It's very maratime but with less force and more finess than the typical Islay malt. Dry. Finish : Long, lingering, tangy and dry with salt, dark chocolate, raisins and iodine slowly fading. Comment : What a fantastic whisky! One for the old school peat lovers with hints of Bowmore, Lap and Laga yet it's no simple imitator. I'll be buying this again for sure! Colour : Golden yellow Score : 0
Age : 21 Years Old Vintage : 0 ABV : 46% Bottler : OB	Type : Single Malt Region : Speyside Water : NO! Ice : NO! Glass : Single Malts of Scotland Notes : BCode L120606 31806BB
More tasting notes by None Please do not reproduce or copy this tasting note without permission.

[borgom]

Ganga, that Benriach 15 Dark Rum Finish sounds very nice. Does the rum really make itself noticed at any stage or are the flavours well integrated?

[Ras Mazunga]

Had the Birnie last night with the LA Scotch Club. Pine trees did get mentioned. I think we ended up with more of a burning pine tar. Loads of burning peat but not the oily nature of the Islays. Also some citrus.

I'll have a look for the tar later on today. I like the line 'burning pine tar'.

But what did people think about this one?

@Borgom: Great notes for the 21.
At the Newcastle whiskyfestival I joined the Benriach/Glendronach masterclass. The first thing I wrote down nosing the 21yo was marihuana smell. Two seconds later Benriachs master disteller said: many smell marihuana in the 21...
Your notes makes me want to buy a bottle.

[borgom]

Thanks Ras, glad to know i'm not the only one who thought of marijuana - what a strange smell to get from a whisky! I wonder what causes it....
Well there's no more BenRiach tastings from me as i've no others to taste. I'm curious about the Curiositas but I'm sure i'll end up with another bottle of 21 instead.

[Ganga]

Moving along to the Benriach 15 Dark Rum Finish (purple label).

Nose: banana bread, nutmeg and ginger, vegetable oil, pencil shavings
Palate: gingerbread, overripe bananas, cinnamon, wheat chaff
Finish: medium with lots of bread and barley notes

This one is getting to be one I really enjoy. May have to consider a bottle for storage.

Ganga, when you first opened thsi bottle was it very rummy? I had it at a Benriach tasting last weekend and it seemed more like rum than whisky.

Sean

I've found the fresh bottles to be sweeter (rummy). I prefer the dk rum to the lt rum finish.

I just thought about something. I've got some notes on some single cask samples. I'll have to look those up and get some of the interesting ones out here.