Summertime and the living is easy…
It’s summer, and this year’s quite hot, I am not drinking a lot of whiskies even in my AC’ed tasting room: it’s mostly beer and an occasional highball cocktail with lots of ice and lime, a splash of whisky or rum inside – for sure. But just in time I have a few interesting samples to review, and that has re-lit the whisky flame in me, so to speak.
A bunch of new TWE exclusives has gone online, and I will be tasting them this week. It has been some time I’ve had a yummy single Cask BR, so I was looking into trying this one first.
The whisky in question is a 2010 vintage from Benromach, matured in a first-fill bourbon barrel # 390, let’s dram!
Benromach 2010 , 10 yo TWE Exclusive , 58.4% , £79.95
Nose: A lovely mix of sweet barley sugars, vanilla, and the faintest note of smoke (Benromach style), burnt coals, and a certain meaty tang, charred meat would better describe it I guess.. Under the meaty and smoking coals, there’s also a nice fruity touch: mostly of apple crumble and some vanilla ice cream. Very nice.
Palate: Boom! I was not ready for that! the nose was gentler and the palate is big (no wonder at 58%), full and bold. Cinnamon spiced apple on the very beginning, gingerbread, and sweet dough, bitter oak with lots of char, which follows dark chocolate and crushed cocoa beans, a hint of licorice and soot.
Finish: Bitter cocoa powder, dark chocolate bonbons, then lots of wood spices, licorice, and cinnamon. dry and bitter-ish.
Conclusion: A lovely dram, with a brilliant nose, a very good palate, and a bitter finish with lots of oak and dark chocolate. I wish the palate would live to the promise of the nose, and this would be excellent stuff. At any rate, very good stuff from Benromach. Happy Summer 😉
Score: 87/100
Available exclusively online on the TWE website