Whisky: BenRiach 35 Year, 2014 Release

Country/Region: Scotland/Speyside

ABV: 42.5%

Cask: Oak

Age: 35 Years (Bottled 10 Sept. 2014)

Nose: Big lacquered wood and currant jam with hints of orange rind and black pepper; apples and pears in brown sugar and butter; roasted figs, flaky pastry, and dark espresso.

Palate: Medium to light-bodied, mellow and soft, lacquered wood and a pho spice bag— cinnamon, anise, fennel seeds, and black cardamon; orange essence or orange blossom and jasmine tea, honey and fig cakes, more chocolate and coffee toward the end with dried fruits, brown sugar, and musty dunnage; more lacquered wood and burning incense at the end.

Finish: Medium to long, gentle and subtle with brown sugar, dried fruit, and wood.

Score: 7-8 (86)

Mental Image: Saigon-inspired Coffee and Confectionaries

Narrative & Notes: Old and stately, the aroma gushed with big lacquered wood and currant jam over toasted bread while the jam popped with hints of orange and pepper. Apples and pears in melted butter and brown sugar brought an element of pie making or dessert as deeper notes of espresso, roasted figs, chocolate, and flaky pastry arrived.  Medium to light-bodied, the whisky was gentle— soft, mellow, and almost fragile at times. Lacquered wood and old casks appeared amongst a bubbling herb spice that tended toward dumplings and pho with cinnamon, anise, fennel seeds, black cardamon, ginger, and coriander seeds. Orange essence with honey fig cakes or perhaps orange blossom jasmine tea carried toward chocolate, coffee, dried fruits, brown sugar, and musty dunnage.  The finish was gentle and long with brown sugar, dried fruits, and wood.

This was excellent and disappointing at the same time; an oxymoronic whisky— or whisky review perhaps. I do not consider myself much of an ageist when it comes to whisky, I do not lust after old malts and claim that nothing under twenty years is worth drinking— something I have heard at tastings before. Maybe with BenRiach I get close to being that way though. Besides an absurdly delicious 6-Year from Duncan Taylor, I have not rated BenRiach too highly until it hits forty years… or you know, pretty old and it is remarkably I have somehow managed to try several in that age band considering BenRiach is not a common distillery I review.  I hoped this would have more in common with some of those ridiculously old malts, than with the younger ones, and, maybe as expected, it split the hair a little bit and had aspects of each.

Overall, I enjoyed this, but I expected a bit more richness, depth, or intensity.  Still a very fine whisky, perhaps best to ignore the weight of my expectations this time.