BenRiach 1983 29 Year Old Single Cask for Kensington Wine Market

Besides their single cask limited releases, BenRiach also does a large number of customer bottlings. This one, for Kensington Wine Market in Calgary, was distilled in 1983 and matured in hogshead #298 for 29 years, yielding 233 bottles in September 2012.

The colour is a bright sparkling yellow. This has a deliciously malty nose, with tropical fruits, very light honey, and underneath that some very rich vanilla. Am I getting vanilla ice cream? Water brings forward even more malt. Soft, gentle and excellent.

On the palate, crisp clean barley, with loads of tropical fruits dusted with cinnamon. More vanilla. Lemon pastry. This somehow manages to be both rich and delicate at the same time, and even more so with a drop of water. Wonderful.

The finish features some light honey, warm spices and is fairly short. This is such a beautiful whisky - this and the last one I just reviewed have left me speechless.

So we've looked at four very different BenRiachs this afternoon. How do they stack up next to each other? The Heart of Speyside (which has been in the glass for a while) is fine but a little nondescript; the 15yo Madeira seems to have improved in the glass, notching up a little above the HoS for me now (though I reviewed it differently only an hour ago!); and this 29yo KWM bottling beautifully defines the "gentle dram". But the winner for me is the 27yo peated tawny port finish. Wow. But if you find any BenRiach single cask bottling, grab it (or if you can, try it first, since they are all so different!) This has been an amazing way to spend Saturday afternoon.

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