Roast beef with Nutella

Benrinnes is a whisky you don’t see very often. It is one of those anonymous work horses for Diageo that produces bulk malts for blends like Johnnie Walker, J&B, Crawfords and the like. There are just a few official bottlings and this is one of them. It hit the shelves in 2009 as part of Diageo’s yearly Special Release and matured on sherry casks.

Wonderfully juicy nose on roast beef with Nutelle (and that is not a joke). It is pretty umami and sweet at the same time. It flirts with sulphur, but never quite crosses that line. Au contraire. It becomes wonderfully fruity on plums and dades, hazelnuts and dried figs. There is also a herbal side to it. And some leather, making it somewhat dry.

Lovely, feisty arrival and immediately very sweet on Nutella and rum raisins. Very spicy indeed. Cardamom and mustard seeds. The roast beef returns, as do the plums and dades. You can almost chew it and I just love it. It does not need water (and truth be told, my sample is too small to give that a try).

The oak becomes quite loud in the very long finish, making this Benrinnes dry your mouth completely.

Very good and very complex animal. Checking my notes, it seems this is only my 5th Benrinnes so far. Well, you do not see it that often with Indies either. Used to be 150 EUR, today – if you can still find it – you’ll have to double that amount.

Scores an average of 93.5 on Reddit's r/Scotch and is one of the best rated whiskies on there.

I have not tasted it myself yet!

Benrinnes 23 OB review

Just poured a small taster for myself.

Nose: right off the bat I get seared meat juice, dark fruits, cigar/tobacco. After a minute chocolate nougat, and rum soak raisins. Going to set it down and come back to it in 10 minutes...

Leather and rum soaked raisins. The chocolate has settled.

With water: the seared meat juice gets brighter. Marmalade and more rum soaked raisins

Palate: rum and oak. Tongue drying heat. Raisins and more oak.

With water: a peppery sweetness... must be the sulphur. Less oak and more dark fruit. It is sweeter now. Definitely needs a lot of air. It’s pent up.

Finish: there’s a slight bitterness and chalkiness, no doubt coming from sulphur. Then I get tobacco and leather

With water: oaky

Conclusion: one of the best whiskies I’ve nosed since the LMDW Blair Athol. There’s a lot going on and it all works really well together. The palate loses points for me. It’s very oak dominant and the sulphur is evident here. I think this needs a few weeks to truly show its colors.