Review by: ZoidbergOnTheRocks
Three samples of whiskies owned by the same company: Benriach, GlenDroanch, and Glenglassaugh. These were provided as part of an online tasting with Rachel Barrie, master blender at all three, arranged by The Barrel Thief in Seattle on 10/21/2020. This was a fun event. The Barrel Thief put together the sample packs with some swag including a branded Glencarin, notebook, whisky stones (why?), and tasting notes for $15, local pickup the day before. There were 15-ish people on a Zoom meeting with Rachel Barrie for ~40min or so. She led us through a tasting of each and gave a ton of info on the distilleries, the expressions and what goes into them, and her thoughts for the future of some of it. She’s enthusiastic and passionate about her work, and is clearly living her dream. A good event all around.
I didn’t take nearly enough notes, but I’ll add in some interesting tidbits below. I did taste about a third of each sample during the event, and I saved the rest to review later.
Tasted on 10/24/2020, neat in a Glencairn.
This is the new Benriach Twelve with their re-launched core of two 10’s and two 12’s, coming out October 2020. Matured in sherry & bourbon casks and Ruby Port pipes. She said that the sherry in this is “predominately” Pedro Ximénez, presumably there is a bit of some other sherry in there as well. She was pretty keen on her addition of the port pipes to this.
46% ABV, natural color but no info on filtering, and I forgot to ask. They’re pretty vocal about this being NCA, so if it was NCF I think she’d have said something about that too.
Interesting tidbit: when talking about the casks for this one, she noted that they have 64 different cask types currently in warehouse 13 at Benriach.
Distillery: BenRiach
Bottler: Distillery Bottling
Region: Scotland, Speyside
ABV: 46.0%
Age: 12 years old. Bottled on 08/12/2020.
Cask type: Sherry, Bourbon and Port
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered.
Nose: honey, almonds & marzipan, Bing cherries, apricots, very light woody spice. Bright and clean, simple, and well balanced.
Taste: cherry, apricot, orange, mild pepper, almond, medium mouthfeel, a bit of toasty caramel.
Finish: apricot, pepper, marzipan, medium length, lingers with mild pepper and sweet fruit with a slightly oaky note on the end.
This is quite good. It’s bright and clean throughout, focused on sweet fruit, almonds, and honey with a very mild spice. Simple, but well balanced and not really any off notes except right at the end of the finish where it ends up a smidge oaky & bitter. Overall a really nice, easy drinking dram that I bet a lot of people would really like. Personally, I’d like to try The Smokey Twelve version of this and I’ll watch out for that.
Final Score: 77.
This is the GlenDronach Revival 15yr that’s been out for a while now. PX and Oloroso sherry casks, with the mix apparently changing a bit over time.
Distillery: Glendronach
Bottler: Distillery Bottling
Region: Scotland, Highlands
ABV: 46.0%
Age: 15 years old. Bottled on 02/24/2015.
Cask type: Oloroso Sherry
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered.
Nose: fig, raisins, orange rind, chocolate, walnuts, liquorice.
Taste: raisins, a bit of sherry, bitter orange, nuts, leather, mild pepper, a bit herbal, medium mouthfeel.
Finish: dark fruit, sherry, mild pepper, dark chocolate, some honey, shorter than expected, tails off with the sherry and some bitterness.
This is a reasonable, simple sherried dram with nothing that particularly stands out for me. Spice kinda overwhelms the palate, and the finish is rather short given its age. The nose is fairly subtle. Erm, I can think of nothing else to add! Maybe simple and underwhelming is the right way to wrap this one up.
Final Score: 77.
This is a NAS expression from Glenglassaugh distilled after they restarted production in 2008. Though there is no age statement on this, during the call she said that it’s 6 years old, and that the Revival is 4yrs and the Evolution is 5yrs. She said this one is peated to 35ppm, with the peated barley coming from St Fergus. This is a small distillery with fairly limited production. She said they have stocks now from 2009/2010 that are maturing nicely, and based on the discussion I’d imagine we’ll see a 10yr from them soon.
Distillery: Glenglassaugh
Bottler: Distillery Bottling
Region: Scotland, Highlands
ABV: 50.0%
Age: NAS. Bottled on 05/23/2018.
Cask type: Bourbon
Natural color. Non-chill-filtered.
Nose: peat, ashy wood smoke, tropical fruits, sea spray, caramel, young malt, warm wet sand, a touch of soy sauce, mild pepper, candle wax, a touch hot. Young and peaty, this is right up my alley. After some time the fruit balances more with the smoke.
Taste: quite fruity with tropical and citrus, ashy smoke, peat, some sea spray, a touch of salt, a little pepper, medium mouthfeel is quite nice, a bit of wax, somewhat savory.
Finish: a burst of ashy wood smoke, more fresh tropical fruit, mild pepper, sea spray, malt, a little salt, that savory note again, medium length is longer than expected. Tails off into very mild pepper with peat and sea spray.
This is an obviously young, peated dram that is really quite good. What’s interesting to me is that while there is good smoke, peat, and some excellent coastal notes, there are no medicinal notes at all in it. I dig this, I want more, and I look forward to older expressions and to see what this distillery does over time. Hoping they stick with the peat.
I’ll probably try to find a bottle of this one.
Final Score: 82.
Comparison
Order: Torfa > 12 > 15
I really dig the flavor profile of the Glenglassaugh Torfa. Reasonable complexity, nice all around, though it is a bit poorly balanced and heavy on the smoke and fruit with the rest taking a far back seat. Still, I’ll take this over the other two any day.
On the Glendroanch Revival 15 vs. the new Benriach 12, I’m gonna pick the 12. Bright and clean, nicely balanced, and overall really refreshing. Something interesting to talk about and share with others, well done overall. The Glendro 15 is just fine, but for me completely one dimensional and underwhelming.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.
Malt Runners 