Ben Nevis 15 Year (1998) Exclusive Malts

Review by: Raygun

From the Creative Whisky Company. 271 bottles. Looks like a full port maturation, which is not that common. Alas, Exclusive Malts is no more. I forget who bought them out. They put out good stuff while they lasted. Rested about 10 minutes. Reviewed from a sample.

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Distillery: Ben Nevis

Bottler: Creative Whisky Company.

Region: Highlands.

ABV: 51.1%. Cask strength.

Age: 15 years. Distilled in 1998. Bottled in 2014.

Cask type: Port cask, #1589.

Price: ??

Color: 1.5, Burnished. Natural Color. Non-chill-filtered.

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Nose: Smells like sourdough, yeasty and alcoholic. Sweet and sour sauce and anise. There’s a little cherry cordial, but overall I’m surprised I don’t get more port influence. It’s pretty closed.

Palate: There’s the fruit I was missing from the nose. Cherries, raspberries, and some orange, with the yeasty, bready flavor underneath. Cotton candy. Mint chocolate.

Finish: Cherry pie filling with blueberries mixed in for some reason. The mint thing is hard to account for but there. Not very yeasty now. Old books. More tannic than I expected.

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Conclusion: Port and peat is an absolutely classic combination. Port with unpeated malt is more hit or miss in my experience. This ends up about in the middle or slightly above. Not a miss, but not everything I’d hoped for either. Nothing wrong with it; just not that memorable.

Buy a bottle? Nah.

Final Score: 78

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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.