An entry in the latin(-ish) named range from Benriach, stepping up from

their 10-year-old Curiositas with a 17-year-old version of their peated

Speyside dram. They say it harks back to the older peaty styles of

Speyside whisky.

 

Unmistakably modern peated whisky, quite clean and delicate nose, peanut oil, vanilla, honey, ashes, salty, lapsang-souchong tea. Finish with saltiness.

sweet smoke, fruit, well integrated. Great nose, good aroma, slightly weaker finish. Good whisky, if not a smoke-flyer.

Highly idiosyncratic nose, hard to pick apart. Some fairground candy sweetness mingling with farmy aromas, fungal mustiness, and dry, herbal smoke (in the direction of Ledaig 10), all of which is great, but there's also some wet wool and burnt plastic, i.e., aromas I'm less fond of. The off notes come and go, though: this is a real shapeshifter.

The attack is way more forgiving than the nose would have you suspect. Some real sweetness, a silky texture and no bite whatsoever. The spiciness only builds up with time, so that the impression slowly graduates from "soft" to "substantial". After the first sip, additional aromas appear: smoked (Lapsan Souchong) and fermented (Oolong) teas, together with dry, crumbling, rotting autumn leaves. After initial skepticism, this is growing on me. With subsequent sips, the taste settles into a groove somewhere between honeyed and herbal, a combination that, to my mind, always works. Fudgy caramel notes from the Bourbon casks reign in the acerbic, surprisingly young-seeming peat smoke aromas.

The finish is long, as could be expected, and remains on the sweet-and-tart seesaw, with an alcoholic zing that, interestingly, only pops up at the death. Despite the initial soft impression, this is a mouthwatering, oily, clingy liquid, and it will stay with you for quite some time. Warming, hearty fare, perfect for stormy, rainy days in the fall. Be advised though: this is one helluva unfruity, dry fellow...

Until a Whiskybase technical issue is resolved:

https://www.whiskybase.com/contribute/group/71/topic/17413/newly-added-notes-only-showing-the-first-few-lines

I am restricted to provide only a rating and a link to my reviews:

https://whiskylovingpianist.wordpress.com/2018/09/13/bottle-polishing-summer-2018-runners-up/