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Day 2 - KWM 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar - Benromach 21 Year Old

Posted on January 6, 2025

Day 2: Benromach 21-Year-Old

By Evan

It is hard to believe, but this may be the first time we have had a bottling of Benromach in one of our Advent Whisky Calendars or Advent Whisky Calendar tastings. We may have had the Benromach 10 Year mini bottle in the KWM Whisky Advent Calendar way back in 2014 or 2015, but that was before my time at KWM and I cannot find record of it.

EDIT: KWM's Marty Rozon thankfully keeps much better records than Andrew or I. Marty has confirmed that the Benromach 10-Year-Old mini was featured on Day 14 way back in KWM's 2014 Whisky Advent Calendar. Thanks, Marty!

Even if we did feature a Benromach way back then, not having done so since is a pretty glaring omission that we are well overdue on correcting.

Benromach Distillery was originally founded in 1898 by the Benromach Distillery Company. The distillery did not actually start production until 1900 due to lack of funds, and then shut down again later that year. It also suffered a closure between 1931 and 1937, but beyond that, it was in relatively steady operation other than changing hands sporadically ownership-wise. It did not survive the Great Distillery Cull of 1983, when it was mothballed by then owners DCL. That would have been all she wrote for the distillery, but a decade later things got really interesting. In 1993 Benromach Distillery was purchased by independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail.

While G&M wasn’t the first indie bottler to get into operating a distillery of their own, this move now seems like an early look at what we have now seen from many other indie bottlers. Having your own distillery allows you to diversify and have a little more control over your own destiny. It gives you an ongoing supply of spirit and whisky that you can bottle yourself and/or trade with other companies for other whisky stock to use in your own indie releases and blends. Oddly enough, few indie bottlers that also operate a distillery seem to want to share their own whisky…

The purchase of Benromach wasn’t the first time Gordon & MacPhail attempted to get into the distilling business. 40+ years prior in 1950, G&M company head John Urquhart placed a bid to purchase the highly regarded Strathisla Distillery. That bid apparently lost by one thousand pounds to Seagram's. Imagine how different the whisky world would be if had managed to purchase the venerable Strathisla Distillery at that time? The distillery is one of, if not the most important component in Chivas Regal which is the third best-selling Scottish Blend in the world behind only Ballentine’s and Johnnie Walker.

Enough of that, though. After purchasing Benromach in 1993, G&M spent 5 years carefully revamping the distillery to their standards before finally reopening it in 1998. G&M’s intent from day one of purchasing the distillery was to make the style of Benromach’s spirit and whisky are a throwback to a bygone era. Much of this is managed with the use of a lightly peated malt for their whisky production. Benromach is one of the few mainland Scotch Whisky distilleries to use peated malt in all of their distillation runs. It makes it a very different Speyside Single Malt than the typical unpeated and fruit driven style championed by the vast majority of distilleries in the region.

Benromach’s whisky is often matured in some of the best ex-sherry casks available, thanks to G&M’s long-standing contracts with Spanish Bodegas that supply them with custom seasoned and crafted hogsheads and butts. The distillery’s whisky also shines when aged in ex-Bourbon casks, but the sherried releases of Benromach are what the distillery is better known for.

Whisky.com YouTube Video on Benromach Distillery

(Click on the picture above for a video tour of Benromach Distillery — made by whisky.com)

If you are expecting something akin to Glenlivet or Glenfiddich or Macallan, Benromach’s whisky will come as a surprise. Thanks to this use of peated malt and careful cask selection, Benromach’s Whisky has more in common stylistically with the rustic, coastal, and highly sought-after single malts of Springbank and Glen Scotia in Campbeltown. A tinge of Highland Park can be found as well, and more heavily peated releases from Benromach can give the biggest and burliest of Islay Single Malts a challenge for your hard-earned whisky dollar.

I shouldn’t be spending all of this time trying to compare Benromach to other Single Malts though. The distillery dances to the beat of its own drum and should be regarded on its own terms. The 21-Year-Old version of Benromach we are tasting today is the most aged release so far since its revival in 1998. Let’s give it a go!

Benromach 21-Year-Old – 43%

Lightly peated and matured in only first fill casks for 21 years before bottling at 43%. The whisky is the culmination of decades of work since Gordon & MacPhail bought the distillery in 1993, and brought it back into operation in 1998.

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Surprising notes of funky and floral yeast – possibly from the long fermentation times? Fresh barley, a frosty lawn filled with leaves in the autumn, graham crackers, fresh pressed apple juice, dates, tangerine, and a peat fire burning away in the background.

Palate: A salty and spice driven hit of peat followed by juicy orange and stone fruit notes, then apple pie, chocolate and caramel coated pretzel snacks, Coffee Crisp bars, and a bit of dry and salty Dutch liquorice.

Finish: Soft bits of salty and smoky sherry fade into the distance.

Comment: This is a delicious 21 Year Old official bottling. I would love to see it at higher than 43%, but I appreciate the combination of complexity and drinkability this level of alcohol gives it.

Andrew's Tasting Note

Nose: soft, waxy, and fruity with a faint clean smoke; Quaker Harvest Crunch with dried apple chunks before you add the milk; dried apricot and melon; coconut cream icing.

Palate: juicy, waxy, and soft with savoury salty tones and more faint clean smoke; gristy, with toasted oak, granola and more dried apple chunks; warming spices and soft new leather; faded orange, melon and apricot; the peat builds, as do subtle sherry tones and twinges of something just a tad more tropical; Crave coconut cupcakes.

Finish: long, warming, and savoury with a coating and waxy body; peat and leather holding out against orchard fruits and some shredded coconut.

Comment: this is lighter than I expected but with lots of layers and elegance; though not quite as chocolatey, I can see some parallels with the old 18s and 21s from the mid-2000's!

The peat for day number two of our KWM Advent Whisky Tastings is not as robust as it was on day one. But still-what were we thinking? Is day one to five going to be just all peated whisky?!? I am sure that would cause a riot. We wouldn’t cause that kind of disturbance intentionally, would we? Stay tuned tomorrow to find out!

Cheers,
Evan

Playing catch-up on our 2024 This Is Not An Advent Calendar?

You can find the rest of the blog posts here!

This entry was posted in Whisky, Tastings, Whisky Calendars, Distillery, Tastings - Online Tasting, KWM 2024 Not An Advent Calendar Tastings

 

 

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