Tasting Benriach 1996 (Caskstrength.net) or Eureka!

Joel and Neil those two nice blokes from the well known cask strength whisky blog are on a mission to bottle whiskies from A-Z, a very worthy and noble cause. Last year they started with ‘A’ and bottled a single cask Arran 1998, that I sadly did not manage to taste, and that one flew of the shelves quickly. This year, they continue with ‘B’ and chose a lovely Benriach which sat in a Bourbon cask until 2008 only to be poured and ‘finished’ for a few years in a PX cask, then bottled with the help of the fellas at Master of Malt. Sounds intriguing? I think so too. When I saw Neil twitting about this one, I knew I was going get me a bottle (and not just because the beautiful carrying bag which came with it for the 50 first orders).

Benriach is one of my favorites and a single cask at that price, is a steal. Knowing Neil and Joel I knew they would not bottle anything that was not brilliant, and it was quite a safe bet. I got my shiny bottle and bag (see pics), and also a wee preview of that in a MOM sample bottle. Now why am I telling you all this? Because like most scientific discoveries which happen by mistake, I found a very cool way to peel off the wax from the wee Master of malt bottles. you want to know how?

As it turns I left the MoM package with the wee sample in my car, and went to work, parking it in the parking lot near work in the summer sun (and we’re talking Israel here, not the UK) which was scorching as usual, only to arrive to my car a few hours after that to find out the box and the wee sample bottle looking like that :

Eureka! what a discovery. I am sure you will all thank me now for letting you onto this lovely new method of recycling those MoM sample bottles. Mind you, You have to live in a really hot country and leave the car in the sun at midday

So, now that you are enlightened let’s get on to the whisky, which is more important.

BenRiach 16 yo 1996, 55,2%, by Caskstrength.net, PX cask #5614, 296 btl.

Nose: Ohhh. What a sweet sweet entry. With loads of sweetness: sugar, vanilla , fresh young oak , bourbon style. Then gets more fruity as in dried sultanas , black currant,  raisins, spices. A whiff of smoke amidst all this fruity sweetness. Strawberry yogurt. with dried fig jam. With some leather.
Palate: Starts fruity with the raisin and berries, than gets sweeter with a lot of sugary sherry sort of thing, wine, cinnamon , coconut. A wild mix of ex bourbon and ex sherry. Nice!
Finish : Sultanas, then getting drier, a bit salty at the end.

A great combo of bourbon and ex sherry. Interesting stuff. Unusual Benriach for sure. But brilliantly so.Glad I bought a bottle. Great work lads!

Lovely stuff, and not many are up for grabs (I hear they are selling well, and I know a lot of friends who did get theirs), so be quick!

Score: 89/100

official sample provided (and heated to 70C, by yours truly) by Master of Malt.