Whisky Focus - BenRiach Batch 12 Single Cask Bottlings

BenRiach has announced the release of Batch 12 of its popular and highly rated single cask bottlings.

This twelfth batch of BenRiach comprises of nine single casks that were bottled in June 2015 and will all soon be available from specialist whisky shops such as The Whisky Exchange.

Ranging from 14 up to 38 year old, the magnificent nine perfectly capture the unique, award-winning BenRiach character.

As we have come to expect from previous releases the variety of expressions in this release is fantastic. Whiskies matured in the traditional, classic Speyside style are accompanied by expressions finished in exciting wood types such as Tawny Port, Pedro Ximenez sherry and Oloroso sherry casks as well as several peated whiskies.

Individually hand-numbered, non chill-filtered and bottled at natural colour, each single cask is truly a one-off and all presented in new BenRiach packaging which reflects the quality of these single casks.

As usual all nine casks have been hand-selected by BenRiach’s Managing Director and Master Distiller Billy Walker who described them as "extraordinarily fine" and added:

"Every single cask bottling is an exclusive limited release. I have selected these nine casks as I believe they are especially noteworthy - highly individual, rounded, full of personality and ranging in fascinating characteristics."

Amongst them are some real highlights. The oldest whisky in the release is the BenRiach 1976 38 year old whisky is from cask number 541, an excellent bourbon barrel. BenRiach tell me that this peated gem suggests baked apples spiced with vanilla and cinnamon combined with a gentle, sweet peat reek to create a long barley sugar finish.

At the other end of the scale, the youngest, BenRiach 2000 14 years old from cask number 69116, which they tell me is a classic Speyside malt, balancing oak spices, green pears and ripe gooseberries combined with a crisp citrus twist and long barley grist finish.

And unusually for BenRiach, one expression - the BenRiach 1998 17 year old from cask number 6394 - has been triple-distilled and finished in a Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon, and they tell me the taste is sensational – white pepper and crisp citrus notes soften to plum juice followed by apple sponge with a dusting of fresh ground barley.

The 9 new BenRiach single cask bottlings details which were all bottled in June 2015 are as follows:

• BenRiach 1976 cask no. 541 / 38 year old / Bourbon Barrel / Peated / 48.8% ABV / 194 Bottles
   
• BenRiach 1979 cask no. 517 / 35 year old / Bourbon Barrel / Peated / 46.9% ABV / 181 Bottles
   
• BenRiach 1985 cask no. 10318 / 29 year old / Bourbon Barrel / Peated / 49.0% ABV / 177 Bottles
   
• BenRiach 1987 cask no. 3825 / 27 years old / Tawny Port Hogshead / Tawny Port Finish / 52.9% ABV / 273 Bottles
   
• BenRiach 1990 cask no. 4936 / 25 years old / Bourbon Barrel / Classic Speyside / 50.4% ABV / 196 Bottles
   
• BenRiach 1995 cask no. 74743 / 20 years old / Bourbon Barrel / Classic Speyside / 58.9% ABV / 186 Bottles
   
• BenRiach 1998 cask no. 6394 / 17 years old / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Puncheon / Triple Distilled / Pedro Ximenez Sherry Finish / 57.5% ABV / 702 Bottles
   
• BenRiach 1999 cask no. 8687 / 15 years old / Oloroso Sherry Puncheon / Oloroso Sherry Finish / 56.1% ABV / 655 Bottles
   
• BenRiach 2000 cask no. 69116 / 14 years old / Bourbon Barrel / Classic Speyside / 56.3% ABV / 195 Bottles
   

All 9 whiskies will be available from whisky shops such as The Whisky Exchange from today.
 

• UK Shops
   
• USA Shops
   
• European Shops
  

Whisky Focus