BenRiach 14 Year Old 2008 Art Malts

Art Malts, aka my good friend Steven Ver Eecke, does it again... only 36 bottles of this 14-year-old BenRiach saw the light of day. And will you look at that color! This is from a bourbon barrel, mind you. Amazing. I got to taste it in preview at the cozy festival When Whisky Meats BBQ (no typo). I hurried to order it. Enjoy!

Chewing tobacco, beef jerky, jelly beans, wine gums, candied pineapple, warm strawberryjam, rhubarb, licorice and BBQ sauce. All this presented on a slab of balsa wood. That's the nose of this BenRiach in a nutshell. Far from ordinary, but what a delicious nose!

Nice and full-bodied, almost syrupy and immediately very sweet and very spicy. Caramel, toffee, apricot jam sprinkled with cloves and some chili peppers. The wood also does its bit by making it somewhat drying and adding a slight bitterness to give all that delicious sweetness some resistance.

The finish is long, warm, spicy and gently drying.

A bombshell, though. I'm only too happy that I was able to get my hands on 2 of those 36 bottles. Is well worth its price tag of 140 EUR!

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