I liked this so much I bought three of them!
BenRiach 1999 ©Colin Hampden-White
Benriach 1999 Cask 9424 15yr old bottled June 2014 Virgin Oak Hogshead 329 bottles, Cask Strength 55.8% Natural colour, non chill filtered.
Specially selected and bottled to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Polish accession to NATO
This whisky is what I would call session whisky. I just kept wanting to come back for more. It is beautifully balanced with big toffee and confectioned fruit notes. Highs of lemon and orange zest to keep the palate clean, but with lots of depth from dried fruits such as apricots and tangerines crossed with fresh apples and pears. Honey comes through on the palate with floral notes, which are rich rather than like hand cream and there is a little soft spice to boot, especially on the finish. not a huge finish, which keeps you wanting more.
Simply lovely, not too complicated, this isn’t an armchair and cigar whisky, but a very good all evening one.
Obviously not the easiest whisky to get a hold of, but this is the retailers site in Poland. 469 zl is about £78
http://www.wina-mp.pl/alcohol/benriach-mp-cask-9423-552-15yo/
So many whiskies so little space
As a whisky writer I am very fortunate to be able to taste many different whiskies from all over the world. Not all good, some spectacular. The Spectacular ones end to make it into print, in either Whisky quarterly, Whisky in Poland, or one of the other magazines I write for such as LUX or the Partner. However this leaves an awful lot of whiskies which are still very good, and don’t get a mention which seems hardly fair.
This brings me to revive this blog I set up a few years ago. I’m not going to give lengthy tasting notes, just brief ones along with my general musings on the quality and style of the whisky and why I think they would be good to buy. As always these are my opinions and as we all have different palates, not a definitive guide! But I hope people find them interesting and even slightly helpful in deciding what to buy.
There may be a few musings on trips, events, shows and general fun where whisky has been involved.
Whisky Glasses ©Colin Hampden-White
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