Benriach 27 year old 1984, cask 1052

I can't believe I still have samples left from whiskysamples.eu. Man, I miss that site. Anyway, this single cask was released by the Billy Walker regime back when they were still partying through hundreds of long-aged casks leftover from the Seagram's era. Finishing an old whisky, especially a peated whisky, in a PX cask doesn't seem like a good idea but for some reason Billy Walker's crew knew how to do it better than anyone. So I have faith. This time.

Distillery: Benriach
Ownership: BenRiach Distillery Company Ltd
Age: 27 years old (1984 - July 2012)
Maturation: Primary - Bourbon cask (a guess). Secondary - Pedro Ximénez cask (listed). Length of time for each unknown.
Region: Speyside (Lossie)
Alcohol by Volume: 50.7%
Cask #: 1052
Bottle count: 258
Chillfiltered? No
Caramel Coloring? No
(Sample purchased from the old whiskysamples.eu 😢)

NOTES

Wave after wave of seaweed and bonfire smoke roll up from the glass, then band-aids and sturdy shitkickers. The enormous nose continues with chocolate, mint, soil, peaches and almond extract. The palate begins similarly with dense herbal peat and bitter smoke. A little bit of grape jam and a lot of orange creamsicle. It has that, er, "hops" note so prevalent in the 21yo Authenticas. More savoriness, dried herbs and limes arrive with time. That herbal peat and smoke meet up sweet limes and oranges in the finish, followed by subtler notes of plums and nutty sherry.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Much gigundous fabulosity. More words? It seems like an old Laphroaig in the nose, then becomes pure well-aged peated Benriach in the palate with an excellent balance that continues on into the finish. After being fully engaged with the experience during the tasting and as the finish continued on and on, I pondered how exactly this was crafted, and why a result of this quality isn't seen more often. I hold no illusions that it is easy to create a whisky like this, but it is possible. There is a path. And finding gems like these make this whole whisky diversion worthwhile. More please.

Availability - Sold out long ago
Pricing - ???
Rating - 91