BENROMACH SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT CASK STRENGTH
Batch 1 distilled in 2007 and bottled in 2018MASH BILL – 100% malted barley
PROOF – 116.4
AGE – 11 years
DISTILLERY – Benromach
PRICE – 43 stupid little dollars
WORTH BUYING? – Pffftyes!
Uncorked and tasted in The Year of No Buying (The what? 🔗 here.)
Through the quirks of whisky bureaucracy, K&L was able to get this wonderful whisky at a dumb price, such that they could sell it for $39.99 and still make money. Benromach had changed distributers, apparently, and their old partner needed to offload some stuff. Fine by me! And kudos to K&L for having the integrity to pass the deal on to their customers.
After I got it home, though, I forgot about it for a good long while. This was 2022 and Benromach was among the myriad Speyside distilleries I’d seen on shelves but not yet explored. I never saw much of it on the whisky social meds either. I’d bought a deal, stashed it away and went on to other bottles.
Finally, late one chilly night, I was hankering for something sweet, dark, and smoky, and this now dusty Benromach came back to mind. I cracked it open, poured a glass, and woah. Funk galore, with sherry, peat, malt, fried bacon fat, salt, dark black cherry, muddy clay, honey, chocolates of various kinds, a tannic dryness creeping in late in the game and with a metallic ring to it.
I added a dollop of water. All the above notes remained, but pitched a notch brighter and without the funkier of the funk notes. This was pungent. Perfect for my late night mood. And at this price?! Shut the front door!
Now here we are, three weeks after uncorking and four pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.
COLOR – pale dirty amber-oranges with honey and gold highlights
NOSE – a medley of freshly sliced orchard fruits in a swirl of smoke from a nearby BBQ where thick steaks are charring
TASTE – adds to the nose’s notes a nice thick caramel, some vanilla, oak, oak and sherry tannins, and dry black pepper
FINISH – the caramel and vanilla immersed in that charred smoke, with a prickly heat that soon fades, leaving smoke, wood and meat char, and dark orchard fruits
OVERALL – a “BBQ on the beach” of a single malt scotch if ever there was one
Other peated single malt scotch whiskies have conjured beach BBQs and campfires for me. But not all of them present that clutch of aromas and flavors so cohesively bound up together. When I wrote the single encompassing note for the Nose above, I paused afterward. Anything I could think to add was either redundant or already implied from the setting I’d described.
As I continue to nose and sip it, something vegetal also starts to emerge—and this will sound odd—like a fresh tomato salad with some dried basil and mozzarella. It seems every dish is being served at this seaside banquet.
The particular meaty, smokey, sweet combo of this Benromach reminds me quite a lot of the Longrow Red Tawny Port Cask I also recently uncorked. I poured a bit to compare.
Though similar in age and proof, and both subject to red wine casking, the Longrow is notably darker in color. Nosing them side by side, the Benromach leads with freely wafting smoke, while the Longrow casually puts forward its port notes first, allowing a far subtler smoke to creep in after. Both leave a strong caramel note for last, the Benromach’s brighter, and the Longrow’s darker and heading toward toffee.
Tasting them, the Longrow is again more subdued, offering a rich and dense layering of red fruit, smoke, and charred meat flavors, accented by sea salt and tannins from both the oak and port. Next to this, the Benromach is again more forthcoming, brighter, its layers unfurling with more air and space between them. This allows each note to show itself more readily and distinctly, while the Longrow, featuring very similar flavors, is thicker and more tightly woven.
Because I’m tasting them side by side, the finish of each whisky blends a bit with the other. But I’d say the Longrow continues to take the darker path to the Benromach’s brighter. I sense this most in the candy notes, which lean more caramel in the Benromach and, now, much more dark chocolate with the Longrow.
I wouldn’t say I prefer one to the other. They’re both perfectly satisfying for their flavor profile niche. But faced with a second purchase, to be frank, the ridiculous price on this Benromach makes it a no-brainer compared to the Longrow’s FOMO-fueled bubble, floating forever upward and further out of reach.
I’m tasting this Benromach on a windy, alternately sunny and cloudy spring afternoon. The Pacific ocean is just a short distance from my neighborhood. I’m very tempted to hop the 5 Fulton bus that makes a straight shot out to the old Cliff House, to brave the seaside wind and enjoy a second glass of this whisky, perched above the sandy shore on a craggy cliff, a setting akin to its natural habitat.
Cheers!
The Right Spirit 