16 year

BenRiach 16 Sauternes Cask

Only 1650 bottles have been produced, after being held in Sauternes Casks from the legendary Chateau D’Yquem. Watch out Glenmorangie Nectar d’Or, an opponent Sauternes finished whisky is in the house!!

COLOR: Aged sauternes, golden raisin, light honey

NOSE: Right off the bat you get a nose full of sweet candy. Some flavored with orange, red apple and apricot. Like you’ve walked into a candy shop that’s owned by a cooper, you can smell the hints of burned barrels behind the closed doors in the rear. The vanilla and honey are undeniable and delicious. No doubt from the interaction with the sauternes cask. The smell of flat sprite comes to mind, which is probably just light ginger, lemon and lime and orange. The wood and spice are not overbearing in the nose but definitely balanced and upfront. The deeper I stick my nose in the glass the more the caramel aroma deepens with vanilla and toffee richness. I slice a vanilla bean in half and store it with my raisins so they taste amazing in my oatmeal and this smells exactly like the box of vanilla’d raisins. Remember that, Vanilla’d Raisins.

PALATE: The golden nectar rolls across your tongue syrupy and sweet. As I swirl the spirit around my mouth the spices warm and surprise every nook and cranny. The flavors of the aromas are all present with the addition of light cracked pepper, lighter spice and the dryness that walnuts give you. There’s a bready quality to it, like I just bit into a sourdough loaf (akin to those from France not San Fran). Nutmeg comes forward, a smell often associated with sweetness but only to be fooled once you eat a spoonful. I want bananas to be found somewhere and then I would say that you’d be drinking banana bread. The spices and sweetness are very similar to a spiced loaf or cookie.

FINISH: The finish is long and warming and spice filled. After the flavors of spiced bread leave my mouth, I’m left with a soft smoke or at least light wood that’s been charred and left to smolder in a cold rain making that sizzling sound.

I tried the BenRiach a couple months ago when I first purchased it and I didn’t really care for it, well not at least as much as I do now. It’s interesting how a liquor will change in the bottle when all you add is time. The flavor is rich and the sweetness is balanced and with it getting colder and it happening to be raining today, I guess the timing is right.

Scotch Out.

Slainte Mhath!

Lagavulin 16

COLOR: The color of the bottle is lovely, a vintage look to it with awesome font…Oh the whisky, it’s a rusty bronze with hints of dirty fallout water.

NOSE: Who’s on fire? I smell a camp fire, with the spit of meat still turning over the barely lit embers. Beef jerky is drying on the side with a soy based glaze. Ash, tobacco and cigar box are very present, like just stepping out of a cigar store but never smoking. There is a light sherry aspect and a mineral like seashell with a light whiff of mint. Water brings out an amazing red fruit that was hiding being the fire pit somewhere, cherry and raspberry. Do I like? I like =)

PALATE: My taste buds were surely tested over this scotch but look deep and you’ll find walnut shell, charred oak and fresh pine. Oh and leather. It is sweet, an enjoyable sweet that offsets the massive smoke bomb. A menthol note carries through to the palate like having licked a friends menthol cigarette (it had to have been a friend, why would I go around licking other peoples cigarettes?).

FINISH: The campfire feel carries all the way through to the end. The embers are now all charred ash, wood smoke abounds and oddly enough there’s a light spearmint. What an interesting flavor to get a mint note through the entire tasting. I really enjoyed the mint.

All packaging aside, I’m not very much a fan of this scotch. People love it and swear by it. Those are probably the same people who love blowing up the price of Ardbeg and Oban. If you like intensely smokey and peaty scotches, these are your winners. If you don’t, please continue with us as we pull away from these smoke bombs and get back to tasting the wonderful caramel, honeyed and toffee scotches that we love so dearly.

Scotch Out.

Slainte Mhath!