Benromach 15 Years Old

Scotch whisky regions eh! You can tell roughly what a scotch will be like by the region it comes from.

Islay - Antiseptic and peaty. Lowland - Light and smooth. Speyside - Rich with dried fruits.

So Benromach is from what is probably my favourite Speyside distillery. But the flavour profile is nothing like what you expect from a speysider. When I want a 'Speyside' style whisky I usually reach for a bottle of Glendronach which is a highland distillery or Glenfarclas which is a from a speyside distillery but they print 'Highland' on the bottle. Benromach is quite different to whiskies from those two distilleries.

So regions are a load of old tosh really!

Anyway onto the Benromach 15.

This bottle has been open for 3 months and has around a quarter left. Drunk neat. Water doesn't change it massively.

Nose

Despite what I said above on the nose it is not unlike a classic speysider. Rich dense Christmas cake, candied oranges, dates.

Palate

Quite different on the palate. Initially you get a hint of dried fruit and oranges on the arrival but then it quickly turns sour and you get gooseberries, plums, tobacco and leather. Some peat and you think it will turn really peaty but then the smoke dissipates. Mouthfeel is fairly thin.

Finish

The finish is fairly short and is drying with oakiness. The peat makes an appearance again at the death.

Overall

This is a really demanding malt. Not the sort of dram you want if you've had a tough day at work and just want to chill out in front of Netflix. It reminds me of Japanese alcohol in a way, but not their whisky. I was thinking more of rice wine and Japanese beer. My nephew's favourite beer is Asahi which is clean, dry and crisp without any hopiness at all. This reminds me a bit of that with the dryness.

I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone looking for a challenging scotch. I will defintely grab another bottle at some point.

My only gripe is I wish they bottled it at 46%

Find where to buy Benromach whisky