It’s time to make a dent in the back log of samples and notes waiting to be published. For today I’ve picked the BenRiach 21 Years Old Matured in four different casks since such a high count of different casks seems to be getting a tad more popular lately (Yes, Laphroaig Four Oak and Jura Seven Oak, I’m looking at you).
This whisky was aged in four different casks: Bourbon, Virgin Oak, PX and Red Wine Casks and then was blended together by BenRiach master blender, Rachel Barrie and bottled at 46%.
The BenRiach 21 Years Old is one of the first new products Rachel Barrie, formerly of Bowmore Morrison Distillers, created for BenRiach when she joined the BenRiach group (also consisting of Glendronach and Glenglassaugh), but we don’t know much about how was the whisky was splitted between the casks not the time period it spent in each cask type (was a portion of the whisky here fully matured in virgin oak for 21 years?).
Let’s check it out and see how the casks shaped this whisky.
BenRiach 21 Year Old Four Oak Casks (46%, £125/124,99€)
Nose: Sweet, lots of nuttiness: with nutmeg and a bit of cinnamon, honey, pears and peaches, a bit of gooseberries, strong vanilla note like the tip of iceberg (promise for much more below surface). Then the virgin oak sweetness and oak spices shows up but it’s kept in check and isn’t overpowering, a touch of coconut. After a few minutes more spices, pepper and cooked cinnamon. Continue reading
Nose: Aged gentle wet peat. Very farmy at first but after a while it’s morphed to earthy peat kind. Sweet red fruits in the background with fresh strawberries and raspberries. Hay and dried grass, moss, hints of apricots and honey. After a while there’s nuttiness and it becomes smoky like a smell of an empty chimney. 
Nose: Sweet sugar, caramel, toffee, nuts, dried fruit, wet (or very damp) wood, citrus whiffs muffled by artificial sweetness and the damp wood. After letting it rest in the glass for a while it’s slightly better and there are added sherry notes, milk chocolate and a better and stronger dried fruits note. 
Test Batch Series, 5 Months Old, Ex-Sherry, 62.4%
Nose: Sweet red fruit with red apples, a touch of strawberry and even mountain ash (rowan). Then there’s the familiar Campbeltown funk, peat smoke, greenery (but sweet), not much oils and fumes this time (I think the sherry casks tamed some of it), spicy honey, sour berries. With more time there’s less sourness and funk and instead there’s a s sweeter red fruitiness and machines oil. Overall soft and great nose. 
Nose: Soft ashy peat, big wave of smoke and thick sweet dried fruit, strong backbone of wood spices and tobacco, very strong cask influence, cherries and cherries juice, toffee, dates, and plastic, not sure if I like this. With a few drops of water: oh much better, spicier, plums, feels much more matured and coherent but now there’s also some burnt pungent garbage. 
Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength Green Stripe 57.3%
Nose: Soft and sweeter nose, especially when compared to the 10 yo and Four Oak. Feels ‘richer’, a bit of luxury feeling, with sweet fruit, both from the first fill bourbon and the other casks: red apples and strawberry Vs. pears and honey. After a few minutes some subtle ashes shows up along with iodine and salted meat. 
Whisky Gospel 