12/10/2023 Benriach

The BenRiach 32yo 1978/2011 (48%, OB Limited Release specially selected and bottled for Asta Morris, Sherry Hogshead, C#7037, 79b): nose: ha! ha! This has an unbeatable mix of classy wood scents and autumn-ish fruits. We have oiled birch shelves, propolis, and furniture wax, flirting with stewed apples, poached peaches, and physalis. It becomes fresher with time, emitting a minty-gingery paste, mild and healing. Next are more-bitter herbs (oregano or tarragon), and crusty bread, before nail varnish appears. Say! this is is not half good, is it? (For our American readers, 'not half' means 'entirely', rather than 'not even half'.) From the nail varnish, we hop back onto the propolis/physalis train. As I tilt the glass, a whisper of smoke comes into view too. The second nose offers a discreet aroma of sugar-glazed, frangipane-and-orange tartlets, which is mouth-watering. In fact, that orange-y undertone grows in confidence. Later on, it is as if all that were joined by flattening cola. Also, the smoke from earlier becomes more discernible. Mouth: in line with the nose, we have stewed, or baked apples, baked physalis, whose skin has burst in the oven, a hefty dose of nail varnish and/or wood polish, hardening furniture wax, and more wood bitterness than I expected: woodworm-eaten cabinets, roasted apple pips, even a spray of hair lacquer. It is also pleasantly warm and tingling; there is definitely no weakness here, in terms of alcohol. The second sip is more boldly bitter (without going overboard), and we see the candied peel of Seville orange, mixed with bay leaves, if not a lick of metal in a warm-butter-knife fashion. Finish: warming and comforting, it is far less fruity than other bottlings from similar vintages, instead focussing on the woody tones -- woodworm-ridden cabinets, ginger peel, crushed cassia bark and roasted apple pips, as well as laurel and bay leaves. Furniture polish is present in a more-timid guise, but physalis is all but absent. Further gulps bring back some fruit, closer to bitter marmalade than any of the initial autumn ones. We also see lichen-covered pear-tree bark, on the other hand, which rounds this off superbly. Perhaps it has mouldy slices of dried apple and stale caster sugar, rubbing shoulders with vintage (but clean) moka pots. How interesting! 8/10 (Thanks for the sample, CD -- I think)