Another week, another Whiskybase release. Unlike last week’s Littlemill 25 or the previous week’s Caol Ila 30, however, this was not a release under their Archives label. Instead, it’s one of the regular Whiskybase labels used for releases that commemorate milestones reached on their invaluable database. This Ben Nevis 18 was bottled in February 2015 to mark the 60,000th entry in Whiskybase. That number is now much, much higher (though I can’t recall if I have any of the later commemorative releases—I’m away from my whisky lair right now). This was from a single sherry butt and the colour of the whisky suggests it might have been an oloroso butt (or at least an European oak cask). Ben Nevis, like Littlemill, has one of Scotland’s most idiosyncratic profiles. Like Littlemill, its spirit is usually quite fruity but, also like Littlemill, the fruit is often intermingled with other notes that are not to everyone’s taste. I’m generally a big fan and so am hoping for good things from this bottle. Let’s see how it goes.

Ben Nevis 18, 1996 (50.6%; sherry butt 2121; Whiskybase; from my own bottle)

Nose: That very Ben Nevis mix of gingery, bready-yeasty and nutty-beany notes (all emphasized by the sherry) along with a fair bit of salt. With more time some musky fruit peeps out (grapefruit mixed with a bit of passionfruit). With more time still the fruit is in the lead. A few drops of water push the salt back and makes the fruit muskier.

Palate: The salt is to the fore here but all the other stuff follows along with pepper and some herbal notes. Some sweeter citrus as I swallow. A sharper bite than the abv might suggest; rich texture. Some oaky bitterness emerges on subsequent sips. More of the musky fruit emerges here as well with time along with a slightly metallic note and the oak recedes. Water pushes the metallic note back and sweetens the fruit.

Finish: Long. The salt lingers for a while and the sweet citrus turns quite tart (lime). As on the palate with time and water.

Comments: A little all over the place at first with a bunch of strong notes asserting themselves but it settled down with time and got very pleasantly fruity. I’ll be interested to see how this develops with air in the bottle.

Rating: 86 points.