Benrinnes 33yo 1984/2018 (57.3%, Adelphi Limited, C#2032, 395b): nose: there is some wonderful, rich resin, in here, dark honeys, so dark they look like tar, and, naturally, the pine cones and needles that are the unmistakable trademark of this distillery. What is unexpected is how greasy it comes out. Aside from the resin cake, it has hemp oil and clean engine oil. Pretty soon, the pine notes come back, with Suc des Vosges and Gocce Pino so fresh they feel borderline mentholated. That is not all, however: further nosing unveils a delicate tangerine paste akin to a pulpy sweet marmalade. Even later, that morphs into a waxy nut paste -- cashew is my guess; when is Diwali, this year? Late October? -- and soft, decaying, rippled apricots. Perhaps there is even a faint whiff of fresh, oily tobacco, come to think of it -- far in the back of the nose, that is. As one thinks that is the nose wrapped up, prune-y plums come dispense the final slap in the face. The second nose has cigar leaves and hay, even though it does not fully do away with the honey. I now dream of honey-glazed haystacks, which might prove too expensive and wasteful to make happen. :-) Finally, we have tangerine-flavoured Tic-Tacs. Mouth: mildly, drying and biting at first, this turns juicy in seconds. Plums indeed, then, very quickly, pine resin and a menthol that flirts with peppermint. Oh! it is not tired in the slightest, this one. It has stem ginger, fresh lemongrass, pressed apricots, so dry they barely gave any juice, crushed pine cones... Fresh, juicy and woody, to summarise. The texture is surprisingly oily, with the resinous cake from the nose making a comeback, alongside dark, (almost) liquorice-y honeys, and a drop of engine oil. The second sip seems sweeter, with stem-ginger syrup and manuka honey poured on pine cones as they release their spores. Remarkable. Finish: it is in the finish that this one reveals all its magic: it is both fresh and warming/comforting at the same time. In more detail, it brings back the pine notes (Suc des Vosges, probably, although it really is a walk in a pine clearing), the dark pouring honey that is now borderline liquorice syrup, the oily resin and plum juice, a minuscule dash of engine oil, and rippled-apricot flesh. The wood seems less pronounced than on the palate, and appears to take on acidity, rather than bitterness -- again, pine wood, instead of, say, hazel. That means there is some ginger, yet pine cones are stronger. The second sip has chewy-pine-bark-meets-honey-lozenges, stem ginger and kaju katli. The death sees a lingering citrusness harking back to pulpy tangerine paste, partly acidic, partly bitter, partly sweet fruit, which cannot not remind me of marmalade. When swallowing more quickly, the whisky even hints at milk chocolate. This is amazing. I am in a generous mood, so it will be... 9/10 (Thanks for the sample, adc)
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