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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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June 27, 2018 |
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Ben Nevis is one of those names that have gained much more traction within the last five or ten years, thanks to a characterful distillate and, perhaps, to some more moderate marketing. Let’s have a rather large bag, from various periods… |
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Ben Nevis 4 yo 2012/2017 (45%, Whisky and Rhum, Golden Barley, hogshead, cask #2044, 2018) 
We know others, especially most if not all distillery owners, would have released this baby as a NAS whisky. So, kudos! Colour: almost white. Nose: this would only work with distinctive distillates, and probably not with, say some average Speysiders. Sweet bread, dough, crushed bananas, then pears and cherries, then barley water, whiffs of asparagus, paraffin, plus some kind of spicy yoghurt sauce, Turkish-style. Pleasant presence. Mouth: a rather bitter and firm arrival, on green pepper and lime juice, then some drying ashes and a feeling of ground cinnamon, before more lemon kicks in, with a funny mojito-y side (which would involve mint leaves, naturally). Finish: medium, fresh, rather herbal and peppery. The lemon and the pears are back in the aftertaste, and would come with a salty touch. Comments: a natural fresh youngster that I really enjoy. Nice to be so close to the distillate.
SGP:362 - 83 points. |
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Ben Nevis 10 yo 1996/2007 (46%, OB, single cask, 700 bottles) 
Some bottles that have been kept at the distillery for years before they released them last year or the year before. Colour: straw. Nose: better polished, obviously, more mineral, flinty, chalky… So in a way, more ‘Ben Nevis’, with also more grapefruit and old hessian. Seaside air. Perfect nose! Mouth: it’s really powerful, extremely zesty, tense, flinty, almost sharp… More chalk and lemon, a little shoe polish, riesling, clay, plasticine, soot… Really wonderful and unlike any other malt whisky – and if there was one that would be Springbank (and affiliated makes), naturally. Finish: long, impeccably lemony and mineral. Exceptional spirit. Comments: I have the current official 10 at 89 points, and like this impressive young single cask even better!
SGP:452 - 90 points. |
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Ben Nevis 19 yo 1997/2016 (48.6%, Maltbarn) 
Colour: white wine. Nose: same ballpark, with maybe a little more putty, plasticine, bicycle inner tube, fresh bread, a little fudge… After all, we’re more or less somewhere between the 2012 and the 1996. Mouth: excellent! Lemon sweets, crystallised angelica, chalk, grapefruits, green pepper, a touch of Japanese seaweed (nori, right?) and perhaps one tiny mussel, then this very peculiar sootiness… All good. Finish: rather long, very chalky/ashy, but once again, the lemon’s back in the aftertaste. Comments: it’s not often that I’m finding official bottlings better than their independent counterparts, but that’s what’s happening so far. Oh, of course that means nothing, and indeed this 1997 is just superb as well…
SGP:452 - 88 points. |
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Ben Nevis 21 yo 1996/2017 (49.8%, Douglas Laing, Old Particular, refill butt, cask #11767, 583 bottles) 
Colour: straw. Nose: similar, naturally, but this time the refill sherry butt seems to have imparted added notes of… rum. I’m thinking of Guyana’s Enmore. Other than that, we have this plasticine-y, chalky, almost rubbery style that works so well. With water: back to pure Bennevisness. Mouth (neat): perfect. Lemon, flints, riesling, chalk, putty, a touch of iodine, and basta. With water: same. Perhaps a few greener notes, perhaps a little more rubber, tonic water, cinchona, chicory… Finish: rather long, a tad bitter now. Comments: superb, only the finish was a little less immaculate.
SGP:462 - 86 points. |
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Ben Nevis 19 yo 1999/2018 (51.7%, Valinch & Mallet, bourbon hogshead, cask#18-1901, 278 bottles)
Given this colour, this may have been a recharred hoggie. Colour: deep gold. Nose: this is something else, for we’re finding many more walnuts this time, old metal polish, camphor, mocha, sodium glutamate, raw chocolate, cigars… All this combines perfectly well with Ben Nevis’s potent style, so all is great. With water: hessian and damp plaster and concrete. Very basementy (ha-ha). Mouth (neat): lemons and grapefruits are having the upper hand this time. Then we have green pepper, chalk as usual, coriander, walnuts, tobacco, cocoa powder… With water: water tends to make it drier, but some blood oranges have arrived at the fruit department. Some mint too. Finish: rather long, with more cinnamon, black tea, dry walnut cordial… Comments: a variation, I would say. Those are usually to be seen at the owners, having said that. Very good if a tad challenging at time.
SGP:462 - 88 points. |
Ben Nevis being a rather heavy spirit, it’s not that easy to have many in a row. So, let’s call this a session and see if we find more of them tomorrow (of course we will). |
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