Benrinnes 20 yo 1995 / 2018 La Maison du Whisky #6093 49.4% vs Benrinnes 20 yo 1997 / 2017 Cadenhead for Shinanoya #912 57.4% 

Benrinnes 20 yo 1995 / 2018 La Maison du Whisky #6093 49.4%

Lots of wonderful yellow hues, warm honey, fresh hay, baked apples and apricots with cream, golden syrup, toffee and vanilla pods. Just a little tense green outline in sprigs of mint, and dill outline this very firm whisky beautifully. Chalky loam and a simmering chardonnay reduction. Weighty olive oil with a sooty edge, All without a smear of sulphur, which can sometimes appear in Benrinnes but doesn’t here. Seriously drinkable. 90 pts

Benrinnes 20 yo 1997 / 2017 Cadenhead for Shinanoya #912 57.4% 

Well this is almost the La Maison but somehow lighter, as if transposed upwards, though plenty of these same warm sunshine-y hues and baked fruit permeate the whisky. Perhaps all round sweeter with more white sugar, and more wood showing in this bright spiced side to it. White pepper, mint, cinnamon, quinine and pines needles provide the herbaceous foil again. 88 pts