Benriach 14 Yrs

A pale golden dram that starts a bit ‘yeasty’ like a pinch of marmite, soon followed by fresh tropical fruit, mostly mango and apricot, with a little chunk of pineapple for good measure.

There is also an underlying floral background with clover (also its honey) and honeysuckle. It’s basically 2/3 fruit salad and 1/3 wildflower bouquet, very nicely balanced.

A little piece of history

Benriach operates since 1897, although it was mothballed between 2002 and 2004, in which year whiskylegend Billy Walker acquired the distillery, together with Glendronach and Glenglassaugh. It had been a somewhat forgotten single malt and its annual output sold to blenders predominantly. Mr. Billy gave Benriach a new lease of life and put it back on the market as a fruity and floral Speyside single malt. In 2016 the American company Brown Forman (owner of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, Old Forester and Woodford Reserve Straight Bourbons) made him an offer he couldn’t refuse and bought the threesome, securing highly esteemed Rachel Barrie as their master blender. Billy Walker now owns Glenallachie distillery, south of Aberlour.

Water source

Burnside springs

Malt source

Commercial maltsters.

Capacity

2.8 million litres of alcohol per annum

Location

Benriach, Elgin, Speyside

1 traditional cast iron mash tun with stainless steel shell (5.8 ton)

8 stainless steel washbacks

fermentation time 55 hours short and +100 hours long

2 wash stills

2 spirit stills