Category Archives: Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis 24, 1996 (Single Malts of Scotland)

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Ben Nevis week has so far featured two young casks from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Monday’s 9 yo was from a first-fill hogshead; Wednesday’s 8 yo spent its last three years in a second-fill oloroso hogshead. Here to close out the week now is another bourbon hogshead, this time from the Single Malts of Scotland. This is older than the previous two combined. It was distilled in 1996 and bottled in 2021. As per Whiskybase, the bottlers seem to have got their hands on a large parcel of these 1996 casks of proximate age bottled across both their Single Malts of Scotland and Whisky Trail lines. This one was bottled for the American market. Let’s see what it’s like.

Ben Nevis 24, 1996 (48.8%; Single Malts of Scotland; hogshead 1730; from a bottle split)

Nose: Everything Ben Nevis: salted nuts, powdered ginger, Makrut lime, a hint of mineral peat, sweet floral notes. Continues along these lines, with the fruit becoming more acidic as it goes. With water the acid recedes and there’s more floral sweetness. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 8, 2012 (SMWS 78.53)

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Ben Nevis week started on Monday with a 9 yo from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society; it continues today with a 8 yo from the same bottler. Monday’s 9 yo was from a first-fill hogshead. Today’s 8 yo, dubbed “Death in the Afternoon” by the society’s tasting panel, also started out in a bourbon cask but after five years was transferred to a 2nd-fill oloroso hogshead. So probably more of a double maturation than a finish. I do enjoy bourbon cask Ben Nevis a lot—as the less assertive wood lets the distillate’s idiosyncratic character take centerstage. But I’m not opposed to a good sherry cask either. Let’s see if this is one of those.

Ben Nevis 8, 2012 (60%; SMWS 78.53; 2nd-fill oloroso hogshead finish; from a bottle split)

Nose: Rubber gaskets, roasted malt, orange peel and that nutty-beany thing. On the second sniff the citrus begins to brighten and come through to the top. Gets more mineral as it goes. As it sits the citrus and the mineral notes blend into something like orange soda with a Dispirin tablet dissolved in it. Not much change with water. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 9, 2012 (SMWS 78.59)

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Okay, Ben Nevis to start the month. First up is a young one from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, bottled after 9 years in a first-fill hogshead. They gave it the name “Burning berries”, which is both downright prosaic by their usual whimsical standards and also, I must say, promising. Let’s see if that promise is kept.

Ben Nevis 9, 2012 (57.8%; SMWS 78.59; first-fill hogshead; from a bottle split)

Nose: Quite closed at first, with none of that Ben Nevis funk in evidence. After a bit of airing some fruit begins to emerge: lime, tart-sweet apple; some wet concrete as well. Opens up further as it sits: the lime expands and here finally is some of that Ben Nevis powdered ginger and yeasty dough; a bit of roasted malt in there too. With a few drops of water there’s a fair bit of vanilla and cream but the lime is still quite strong (and mixed in with some floral sweetness). Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 12, 2009

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September began with a week in Campbeltown with a Kilkerran trio (here, here and here). It continued with a week of island distilleries (here, here, and here) and then a week that featured an English distillery (here) and two Speyside distilleries (here and here). Let’s close the month out now with a week of distilleries in the Scottish highlands. I’ll start with a bourbon cask Ben Nevis.

This 12 yo appears to have been a private cask bottling. It was bottled to mark someone’s bat mitzvah. And as per the rear label picture on Whiskybase, it had been distilled on the day that person was born and was then bottled on the day of their bat mitzvah. It must have taken some doing to make this happen. I assume the birthday cask was identified closer to the time of bottling than of filling—otherwise you’d be taking the chance that this special commemorative whisky might turn out to be a dud. Though it’s true that young bourbon cask Ben Nevis is usually a good bet. The yield was 293 bottles from an ex-bourbon cask (presumably a hogshead) and that probably explains how a bottle ended up in the possession of the person I got a part of a bottle split from. Let’s see what it’s like. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 9, 2012 (Single Malts of Scotland)

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I enjoyed last week’s trio of Ardmore 23, 1997s from the SMWS (here, here and here). Let’s stay in the highlands to close out July and start August. First up is a young Ben Nevis bottled by the Single Malts of Scotland from a bourbon hogshead. It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Ben Nevis’ idiosyncratic profile, especially when emerging from bourbon casks. Let’s hope this one doesn’t let me down. This came to the US (not sure if it was an exclusive) and sold in the neighbourhood of $100.

Ben Nevis 9, 2012 (57.5%; Single Malts of Scotland; bourbon hogshead; from a bottle split)

Nose: Ah yes, that familiar mix of malt, yeast, salted nuts and mineral notes. On the second sniff, tart apple, gooseberry and melon emerge; toasted oak beneath the fruit. A little more acidic with time. With a few drops of water there’s quite a bit of citronella and paraffin and less oak. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 18, 1991 (Mackillop’s Choice)

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After two weeks in a row of bourbon cask whiskies (from Bladnoch, Linkwood, Dailuaine, Ardmore, Glen Garioch and Teaninich), let’s finish the month, and the year, with a week of sherry-matured whiskies. Instead of going up in age over the course of the week—as I usually do—let’s do them in order of increasing sherry influence. First up, accordingly is a single cask Ben Nevis 18, 1991 that was bottled by Mackillop’s Choice back in 2010. I purchased this bottle not too long after, and as with so many bottles purchased in that time period, I have no idea why I haven’t opened it in all these years—except perhaps that I purchased rather a lot of bottles in that time period. Anyway, it’s open now.

By the way, I was surprised to learn that Mackillop’s Choice is still a going concern—or at least that it was just a few years ago. Whiskybase doesn’t have any listings for 2022 or 2021 releases from the label but there were at least a few releases in 2020. If you’d asked me before I looked it up, I would have guessed they’d long gone the way of Scott’s Selection. Based on Whiskybase listings, the heyday does seem to have ended in the early 2010s, when they were still releasing 20-30 malts in most years. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 21, 1998 (Archives)

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This week of Ben Nevis has not turned out to be all I hoped it would be. Monday’s 20 yo from Single Cask Nation was disappointing; while Wednesday’s 21 yo from the Daily Dram was a fair bit better, it didn’t have me reaching for superlatives either. Those were both refill sherry casks. Today’s closer is also 21 years old but is from a hogshead. Will it reward my oft-stated faith in bourbon cask Ben Nevis? Let’s see.

Ben Nevis 21, 1998 (48.2%; Archives; hogshead 188; from a bottle split)

Nose: Quite fruity with melon, pineapple, tart-sweet apple. The nuts and powdered ginger and funky notes are so far not here. The powdered ginger emerges with time along with some cream and some dusty oak A few drops of water make the cream expand and bring out more sweet fruit to go with it—some blueberries too now. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 21, 1996 (The Daily Dram)

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Ben Nevis week got off to a disappointing start with Monday’s 20 yo from 1996. That one, bottled by Single Cask Nation, was from a refill oloroso puncheon. Today I have for you another from the 1996 vintage, with an additional year of age. It is also from a refill sherry cask—a butt in this case, and the type of sherry not specified. This one was bottled by the Daily Dram—which, I have to constantly remind myself is an independent bottler unrelated to the Nectar’s “Daily Drams” series. Anyway, I’m hoping this will reset this week of Ben Nevis. Odds are good as I can’t remember the last time I had two indifferent Ben Nevises in a row.

Ben Nevis 21, 1996 (50.6%; The Daily Dram; refill sherry butt; from a bottle split)

Nose: A classic Ben Nevis arrival with roasted nuts, malt, ginger powder, yeasty dough and rubber gaskets from old medicine bottles. On the second sniff there’s a fair bit of salt and just a hint of smoke. As it sits some sweet citrus emerges (orange peel and juice). With time the yeast comes to the fore and is joined by some white pepper. Water pushes the yeast back a bit and brings out more citrus. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 20, 1999 (The Daily Dram)

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I must apologize for lying to you. On Monday I said that all three of this week’s reviews would be of 20 yo Ben Nevises distilled in 1997. This was true of Monday’s Berry Bros. & Rudd cask and also of Wednesday’s Exclusive Malts cask. But it turns out that this one—bottled by The Daily Dram—was actually distilled in 1999. It is a Ben Nevis though and 20 years old, which means I’m only 33% a liar. It’s also different from the other two in that while those were both sherry casks—well, the Berry Bros. cask does not specify but it seems pretty obviously a sherry cask—this one is not. Okay, so this one does not specify the cask type either but by the looks of it this seems very much like an ex-bourbon cask. Will it be more quintessentially Ben Nevis than the other two were? I did like both of those but felt the sherry covered up the Ben Nevis funk a bit too much. In theory, at least, the bourbon cask should let more of that out. Let’s see if that proves to be the case. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 20, 1997 (The Exclusive Malts)

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Another day, another 20 year old Ben Nevis distilled in 1997. Monday’s iteration was bottled by Berry Bros. & Rudd; today’s was bottled by the Exclusive Malts/Creative Whisky Company. If I’m not mistaken the company is now defunct (a thousand apologies if that’s not true). Unlike Berry Bros. & Rudd, they specified the cask type: a refill sherry hogshead. I hazarded the opinion on Monday that the Berry Bros. & Rudd cask might also have been refill sherry. Let’s see if I like this one as much as I did that one.

Ben Nevis 20, 1997 (51.9%; The Exclusive Malts; refill sherry hogshead #38; from a bottle split)

Nose: Musty oak off the top and quite a bit of it; a leafy quality too (like damp, rotting leaves). On the second sniff the oak turns to cedar and some sweet orange begins to push its way out. As it sits the citrus becomes more tart/acidic and there’s a mineral, slightly chalky edge to it. With time the oak more or less fades here and is replaced by sweeter notes of butterscotch and brown sugar. Fruitier with water as the orange is joined by some papaya and hints of tart-sweet mango. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 20, 1997 (Berry Bros. & Rudd)

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Let’s start the month with a trio of Ben Nevis. After that we’ll be ready for anything. All three that I’ll be reviewing this week are 20 years old and distilled in 1997. I’m curious to see how much variation there will be across the set. First up, a cask from Berry Bros. & Rudd, a name that is generally a reliable marker of baseline quality. True to form, they do not specify the cask type but, as you’ll see, I have a guess.

Ben Nevis 20, 1997 (54.6%; Berry Bros. & Rudd; cask 85; from a bottle split)

Nose: That very Ben Nevis mix of ginger, salted nuts, white pepper and malt off the top. On the second sniff there’s a faint whiff of diesel as well plus bright citrus. Continues in this general vein. With water there’s the diesel turns to paraffin and the ginger and citrus turn to citronella. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 20, 1997, King of the Hills (Old Particular)

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We’ll stay in the western part of Scotland for the last of this week’s highlands reviews (which began at Ardmore on Monday and continued at Oban on Wednesday).

Ben Nevis is located less than 50 miles drive from Oban but the profiles of the distilleries’ malts are much further away from each other. Where Oban produces a relatively austere spirit, Ben Nevis puts out what can fairly be called a consistently funky one. Independent releases in recent years have done a lot to improve the distillery’s reputation and the official 10 yo was excellent too when I last checked in on it (I’m not sure of its current status). It’s no secret to those who read the blog regularly that I really enjoy Ben Nevis—exactly one year ago I placed it in the list of my five favourite distilleries. Their whiskies are not always great but they’re always interesting. Let’s see if this one manages to be both. It was bottled a couple of years ago by the Laings’ Old Particular label as part of a series of “cards”—I think there were cards for various regions. Ben Nevis, appropriately, was named “King of the Hills”. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 25, 1991 (Signatory)

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Alright, after a week of peated Islay whiskies followed by a week of rums, let’s do a week of older whiskies; specifically a week of 25 yo and over whiskies. First up is a Ben Nevis distilled in 1991 and bottled in September 2016 by Signatory from a sherry butt. As regular readers of the blog know, I am a big fan of the idiosyncratic malts made by Ben Nevis. Always fruity, Ben Nevis usually gets even more so with age. The last Ben Nevis I reviewed was a 23 yo from a refill sherry butt and I loved it. I also really liked this 22 yo from 1997—also from a sherry butt—and this 21 yo from 1996 from a refill sherry butt. And for that matter I’ve previously reviewed three other sherry cask Signatory 1991 Ben Nevises—a 26 yo, a 24 yo and a 22 yo—and liked them all very much (though I do note that I liked the 26 yo the least). I guess what I’m saying is that sherry cask maturation rarely seems to get in the way of the pleasures of Ben Nevis’ distillate. Anyway, let’s see what this one is like. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 23, 1996 (First Editions)

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Let’s get the month off to a likely fruity start with this Ben Nevis. I have three Ben Nevis on my long list for May and I’d said that if I reviewed a whisky that was part of a listed trio I’d likely review all three—as I’m liking organizing my reviews in a themed manner. However, given that I did a Ben Nevis week back in October and have reviewed three more since then, perhaps I don’t need to do another all Ben Nevis week. Accordingly, this will be the first in another week of reviews of highland malts (and I suspect it will also end up being a week of reviews of highly fruity malts).

This Ben Nevis was released in 2020—thus allowing me to spit in the eye of people who accuse me of only posting useless reviews of whiskies released a long time ago. Well, I don’t know that this review will be of any use to anyone either from a purchasing perspective, as I’d guess this sold out a long time ago. But perhaps some of my readers have or have already finished a bottle of this. If so, please consider sharing your take on it in the comments as well. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 22, 1997 (Single Malts of Scotland)

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Okay, let’s get off Islay and head up the western coast of Scotland and make a right turn to Ben Nevis. I reviewed a few 20+ yo indie releases of Ben Nevis towards the end of last year: a 22 yo, a 24 yo and a 26 yo, all distilled in 1991 and released by Signatory and a 21 yo from 1996 released by Whisky Doris. They were all very good, a couple of them exceptional. Those were all from sherry casks and so is this 22 yo released in 2019 by Single Malts of Scotland. Odds are good that this will be at least very good as well. Let’s see if that proves true.

Ben Nevis 22, 1997 (58.4%; Single Malts of Scotland; sherry butt #91; from a bottle split)

Nose: Roasted malt, salted nuts, orange peel and raisins; some powdered ginger too and some dusty oak. There seems to be some richer fruit in the background trying to get out but the alcohol may be holding it back. Let’s give it time and then water. Gets richer as it sits with the orange peel expanding and being joined by some apricot jam and some soy sauce. With a squirt of water the citrus brightens—between orange and lemon now—and then it begins to get more musky with charred pineapple and more apricot. The citrus turns to citronella. Continue reading →

Glencoe 8

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Let’s close the month with a Scotch whisky that is neither a single malt nor a blend. Yes, it’s in everybody’s favourite confusingly named category: blended malt whisky! Once known more clearly as “vatted whisky”, this category comprises vattings of malt (but no grain) whiskies from more than one distillery. There’s not very many of these out there from big name producers—William Grant & Sons’ Monkey Shoulder comes to mind, as does Diageo’s Green Label. Otherwise, this category is mostly the province of people like the bespoke suit-clad gents at Compass Box. This Glencoe 8 is a product of the owners of Ben Nevis and it’s barely a blended/vatted malt. The story seems to be that it is made up of malt from Ben Nevis and one other distillery (which one? I don’t know). The even more unusual things about are its age statement, proof and price. Normally you’d expect a distillery to dilute something like this down well below 50%, swap out the age statement for words such as “Reserve”, “Select”, “Pride” or something in Gaelic and sell it for a very high price. Good on the Ben Nevis brain trust for not doing any of those things. Well, that last part is true in the UK where this goes for £40 or so; the few listings I found for the US were closer to $100. This sample comes from a bottle released a couple of years ago with a label different from the current iteration—which is in line with the new Ben Nevis house label; the whisky in the bottle itself has apparently not changed. But what is that whisky in the bottle like? Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 21, 1996 (Whisky Doris)

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I reviewed three 20+ yo Ben Nevis last month, all from Signatory, all distilled in 1991 and all from sherry butts. I found the 22 yo and the 24 yo from the trio to be excellent and the 26 yo to be merely very, very good. None of them exhibited sherry bomb character, allowing the distillery’s unique funky mix of fruit and malt and mineral notes to come through front and center. Today I have another 20+ yo Ben Nevis from a sherry butt (this time specified as a refill sherry butt). This was bottled not by Signatory but by the German outfit, Whisky Doris—though for all I know, Signatory may be the source of their casks. This one is from 1996, another year from which a number of casks have been bottled. In addition to the official 1996-2012 I’ve reviewed a number of indies as well: an 18 yo from Liquid Treasures; a couple from Cadenhead (this 19 yo and this 17 yo); and another 18 yo from Whisky Import Nederland. Indeed, my very first Ben Nevis review was of a 9 yo, 1996 bottled by Duncan Taylor under their Whisky Galore label. All of them—whether from bourbon or sherry casks—have ranged from very good to excellent; and all have been anything but cookie cutter whiskies. Let’s hope this one doesn’t let the side down. Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 26, 1991 (Signatory)

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Let us bring Ben Nevis week to a close. To recap, three sherry casks filled in 1991 and bottled by Signatory at the ages of 22, 24, and 26. I thought the 22 yo was a gem and then liked the 24 even more. Do I dare hope that the 26 will be better still? Of course, we know that age is no reliable predictor of quality—a few extra years can take a cask past its prime just as easily as they can add further depth. I am hoping for good things though as the colour of this sample suggests that this too was not an over-active sherry cask. Hopefully, that funky, fruity Ben Nevis character will be front and center here as well. Let’s see if that’s the case.

Ben Nevis 26, 1991 (57.3%; Signatory; sherry butt 2377; from a sample from a friend)

Nose: That familiar mix once again of musky citrus, powdered ginger, malt and yeast. On the second sniff the powdered ginger moves in the slightly rubbery direction of old-school medicine bottles. With time and air the sweeter fruit from the palate (peach nectar) joins the musky citrus. A few drops of water and there’s more malt and some very milky cocoa to go with all the rest. Continue reading →