Benromach 1982 / 2000 Gordon & Macphail ‘Cask’ #987 61% vs Benromach 1982 / 1996 Gordon & Macphail ‘Cask’ #1335 + 1341 63%
I don’t see very many Benromachs around, wonder what they’ve been doing with all their whisky, given it’s a small distillery, and yet it’s been 20 years since it reopened? Gordon & Macphail wanted to make a whisky true to a 60s style of distillation, so really looking forward to a 21 year old 100 proof right about now. And judging from these two whiskies, it seems the 80s weren’t bad at all either.
Benromach 1982 / 2000 Gordon & Macphail ‘Cask’ #987 61%
Benromach often has this piney, dried leafy (10 yo 100 proof!) aura about it and this one seems especially keep to take that path less travelled. So, pine needles, pine bark, menthol and birch tar. Also metal shavings or something sharply ironic – that’s the smell of an expectation that no good whisky was distilled in the 80s needing re-education. Castile soap, flax oil, wet clay and empty nut shells lend a clean earthy-oily vibe. A lot of little waxy and flinty notes now, especially apparent on the tongue. Burnt sugar, leathery touches. Fairly firm spirit with natural presence, and glad to see the modern remains so.
Benromach 1982 / 1996 Gordon & Macphail ‘Cask’ #1335 + 1341 63%
Boatload of sherry maturation flavours carry through – cocoa, aromatic plum skins, cigars, coffee grounds, and raspberry ganache. Some phenolic elements with blackened firewood, some soot and dunnage dirt. Don’t mind the abv now but do add water. Rich garb for the struggling piney notes here, and the eucalyptus, old cloudy, and oily notes are really weighed down, if they do enjoy it somewhat. Resins and flints too. Great integration between the whisky and the sherry character, its like Benromach was made to stand up to sherry.
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