Tag Archives: Benrinnes

Benrinnes 2010 10 Year Old (Blackadder)

Benrinnes is a distillery more known to whisky geeks and afficionados as most of their whisky goes into blends. Their whisky is big and muscular and I usually enjoy my Benrinnes when it’s far more older then this specimen bottled by Backadder.

This is a 10 Year Old Benrinnes distilled 21.06.2010 and bottled in August 2020 after maturing in a straightforward ex-bourbon cask (number #306695).

This hogshead yielded 321 bottles at 58.1% and now it’s time to see how this whisky fares even at this tender age.

Blackadder Benrinnes 2010 10 Year Old (58.1%)

Photo: whiskybase.com

Nose: It’s a young Benrinnes and the toughness is on display. Straw, honey, rocks dust and green pears. Then it gets herbal with lavender, a touch of soap, herbal perfume. Cereals, bread, bakery fresh dough, kiwi and papaya, vanilla pods and all this time the tough backbone is there. This is not a soft whisky, it’s one with bulging muscles. Continue reading →

Benrinnes 18 Year Old whiskybroker.co.uk (BTC 2017 Day 1) Review

Last night I’ve started my annual whisky torture, also known as the BTC (Blind Tasting Competition) in some circles. It’s my 4th year in the competition and it’s never getting easy.

Day 1 sample was a clear ex-bourbon whisky with cask strength ABV. After sniffing and tasting I went with a random Highlands distillery and high ABV of 56%. I wasn’t sure about the age, at first I thought it’s either 9-11 or 16-18 but the tropical fruits and the lack of malt notes made me go with 17 years.

Then the whisky was revealed, from Benrinnes distillery (speyside region so zero points), 50% (I overshoot so no points) and 18 year old so at least in this category I got some points.

This whisky was distilled in 15.08.1997 filled into cask #906 and bottled in 01.02.2016, yielding 216 bottles.

WhB Benrinnes 18 Year Old (50%)

Nose: Pears, very minerally (assuming it’s partially due to high ABV), honey, hints of greenery, green fruit and ginger. With water: more honey and pears and less minerals and slowly developing nuttiness. Continue reading →

Now that’s what I call a sherry bomb – Review of The Bottlers Benrinnes 26 Year Old

Following Yesterdays review of the single cask Glendronach, I thought it will be a good idea to bring you an example of a true sherry bomb. If you recall from that review, I said that it felt a bit lighter than a true sherry bomb so today I bring you a review of 100% sherry bomb.

I was debating between two possible reviews but this morning on twitter there was a small discussion on awful sherried Benrinnes whiskies and just like that the die was cast for me as one of the options is an explosive sherried Benrinnes and that should mend the broken opinion on that kind of whiskies 🙂

It’s an indie bottling, as Benrinnes doesn’t have any official bottlings, from the too seldom active The Bottlers company. It’s a November 1982 vintage that spent 26 years in a Refill Sherry Butt before being bottled at 2009 at natural cask strength of 57.4%

The Bottlers Benrinnes 26 Year Old (57.4%, Cask #3229)

Nose: Heavy sherry nose with tons of dried fruits, a bit of smoke, sweet raisins and sultanas, prunes and cinnamon, thick and chewy, muted oak spices. After letting it sit in the glass for a couple of minutes there’s dark caramel and the it is spicier. Hey, there’s tobacco too now!
Continue reading →